Environmental impact of wind power
The environmental impact of wind power is relatively minor when compared to that of fossil fuel power. Wind turbines produce negligible amounts of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, mercury and radioactive waste when in operation. Wind power doesn’t consume water for continuous operation and has near negligible emissions directly related to its electricity production.
About Environmental impact of wind power in brief
The environmental impact of wind power is relatively minor when compared to that of fossil fuel power. Wind turbines produce negligible amounts of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, mercury and radioactive waste when in operation, unlike fossil fuel sources and nuclear energy station fuel production. Wind power doesn’t consume water for continuous operation and has near negligible emissions directly related to its electricity production. With the construction phase largely to blame, wind turbines emit slightly more particulate matter, a form of air pollution, at an exception rate higher per unit of energy generated than a fossil gas electricity station. Wind turbine manufacturer Vestas claims that initial energy \”payback\” is within about 7–9 months of operation for a 1. 65–2. 0MW wind turbine under low wind conditions, whereas Siemens Wind Power calculates 5–10 months depending on circumstances. A typical study of a wind farm’s Life cycle cycle results in similar results as the following 2006 analysis of wind energy produced, with most of the CO2 coming from the concrete producing wind farms in the US, where the carbon dioxide emissions ranged from 14 to 33 tonnes per Gt of energy produced. The energy return on investment for wind energy is equal to the cumulative electricity generated divided by the cumulative primary energy required to build and maintain a turbine. According to a meta-study, in which all existing studies from 1977 to 2007 were reviewed, the EROI for wind ranges from 5 to 35, with the most common turbines in the range of 2 MW nameplate capacity-rotor diameters of 66 meters, on average the E ROI is 16.
Wind turbines also generate noise, and at a residential distance of 300 metres this may be around 45 dB; however, at a distance of 1. 5 km, most wind turbines become inaudible. However, when improperly sited, data from the monitoring of two groups of growing geese revealed substantially lower body weights and higher concentrations of a stress hormone in the blood of the first group of geese who were situated 50 meters away compared to a second group which was at adistance of 500 meters from the turbine. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory maintains a database of the scientific literature on the subject, However, many details, as well as the overall impact from the growing number of turbines, remain unclear. A summary of the existing field studies compiled in 2010 from the National Wind Coordinating Collaborative identified fewer than 14 and typically less than four bird deaths per installed megawatt per year, but a wider variation in the number of bat deaths. Like other investigations, it concluded that some species are known to be harmed more than others and that factors such as turbine siting can be important. The land between the turbines and access roads can still be used for farming and grazing. The most common wind power installations in the U.S. are in the Midwest, where carbon dioxide emissions of wind turbines ranged from 13 to 33 Gt per year.
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This page is based on the article Environmental impact of wind power published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 30, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
