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Throughout its history, the Pennsylvania Resources Council (PRC) has held to a dual mission of promoting conservation of our natural resources and the protection of Pennsylvania’s scenic beauty. So the question arises on wind power generation – does this form of alternative energy put the conservation of our natural resources at odds with the protection of our state’s natural beauty? Or, can this dual mission be accomplished while embracing wind power generation? PRC is committed to exploring ways to capture wind energy to preserve natural resources, reduce dependence on fossil fuels, and reduce emissions to the environment, while at the same time preserving Pennsylvania's most important aesthetic treasures. We firmly believe that, if sited and developed properly, wind energy can help meet our energy demand without undue compromise of PA’s scenic beauty. If Pennsylvanian’s continue to use more energy, compromise is absolutely necessary to satisfy our demands.
It is an undisputed fact that many of the modern wind turbines are very large structures. In addition, many of our scenic ridgelines and expansive views are high wind areas where wind turbines are most productive. There will be visual impacts to our landscape with the placement of any wind power generating facility. But given the strong need to develop alternatives to fossil fuels in our energy portfolio, PRC believes wind power generation should be encouraged in Pennsylvania. To do this correctly, a balanced and objective siting approach is needed that carefully weighs financial, environmental and aesthetic benefits and costs of each project.
With that belief, PRC encourages municipalities and citizens to educate themselves on both the visual impacts and benefits of wind energy in their communities, and develop the ordinances necessary to integrate wind power into the community while minimizing any adverse impacts to our shared landscape. PRC believes the varied environmental benefits of wind power are simply too great for this important resource to be ruled out in Pennsylvania. Among these benefits, wind power is a zero emissions energy source that is both completely renewable and infinitely sustainable. Secondly, the energy generation efficiencies of wind turbines are improving rapidly, making the technology more feasible in a wide variety of locations in Pennsylvania. Yet our landscape is often a beloved natural resource shared by many citizens, and should be weighed as such when developing wind projects. Permitting and regulation needs to include consideration of the visual and environmental impacts of wind turbines with appropriate requirements for siting, design, and construction of wind towers.
Education is the first step in understanding how to best make smart decisions that balance the aesthetic concerns and energy benefits of wind energy. Below are several documents that provide information on wind power generating facilities; their impacts to the landscape; and steps that should be taken to minimize those impacts. We believe that with proper development, wind power can grow intelligently in Pennsylvania without creating blight to our scenic and historic landscapes.
When looking at the issues in developing wind power in Pennsylvania, it is important to keep in mind that there is no “free lunch” in life, even in the field of alternative energies. Every form of energy generation will have some type of impact to our environment. For that reason, promoting energy conservation remains one of the most important considerations to reducing the environmental impact of energy generation. The simple fact remains that the kilowatt of electricity not used is the most environmentally friendly kilowatt. For information on energy conservation, check out the Alliance to Save Energy website or the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection . Reducing energy use in our homes and communities while promoting low impact energy alternatives such as wind power will move all of us closer to an environmentally sustainable world.
A good beginning document for understanding some of the potential impacts of wind power facility development is provided in Scenic America’s presentation “Wind and the Landscape”
In 2006, a collaborative process with state agencies, citizen groups, municipal organizations and power companies produced a Model Wind Ordinance specific to Pennsylvania. This model ordinance provides insight on the issues municipalities should consider when reviewing or regulating proposed wind power facilities. It is available on the Pennsylvania DEP website.
The Pennsylvania Department Conservation of Natural Resources is developing siting criteria for state forests. Their website has useful information on wind energy issues, and will have the DCNR siting criteria document once it is completed. Visit http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/wind/index.aspx for more information. In addition, the Pennsylvania Game Commission is reviewing wind project proposals for state game lands. For more information on the current Game Commission Wind Energy Voluntary Cooperative Agreement, go to the Commission website, and type “wind” into the search box. Many state policies are currently under development and review, and will be posted to the DCNR, PADEP and Game Commission websites when they are finalized.
In addition, here are other useful documents and websites on siting criteria:
Potential impacts to wildlife, in particular impacts to birds and bats, remains a major environmental concern for wind power projects. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has information on these impacts, and ongoing research. The USFWS “Interim Guidance on Avoiding and Minimizing Wildlife Impacts from Wind Turbines” is available at this site. While this USFWS document does not provide final guidance recommendations, it does covers many wildlife and wind compatibility issues and provides information on siting criteria that should be reviewed and considered. These guidelines will undoubtedly be modified as ongoing wildlife research and information becomes available.
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has their state Wind Siting Guidelines here.
Paul Gipe, author of “Wind Power”, and coauthor of “Wind Power in View” has an extensive website with a wide range of material and links to articles, including:
http://www.wind-works.org/books/wind_power_view.html
http://www.wind-works.org/articles/BestPractice.html
www.wind-works.org/articles/WWEA_Sust_Guide.pdf
A good case study of siting a wind turbine within the community is on the CEERE website: http://www.ceere.org/rerl/publications/whitepapers/AWEA_Hull_2003.pdf
And a New Zealand fact sheet provides some good explanations on why turbines are placed in certain locations: http://www.windenergy.org.nz/documents/2005/050825-NZWEA-FactSheet5Siting.pdf
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