Are you aware that developers are seeking to construct 200 or more industrial wind turbines in our region? Did you know that these turbines would be approximately 493 feet tall – taller than the tallest building in downtown Toledo?
We would all love to reduce our dependency on foreign oil; however, industrial wind turbines are not the answer. In Michigan, almost no electricity is currently produced from oil, but industrial wind turbines use oil in energy production. In fact, each turbine nacelle holds approximately 200 gallons of oil, so, with 200 turbines proposed for the area, 40,000 gallons of oil would be suspended 300 feet in the air! None of this even considers the amount of energy that is used in the manufacturing, transportation, construction, backup and maintenance of the wind turbines. One study suggests that wind turbines will not produce enough energy over their lifetime to equal the energy consumed to create the installation in the first place.
Did you know that the two countries with the highest number of installed turbines (Germany and Denmark) also have the highest electric rates among European countries? And that Holland, home of the windmill, has recently decided to abandon their wind projects in favor of more nuclear energy?