Wind Power!
by Lord Alex
Wind Turbine
Horizon Wind Energy
Horizon is a Houston, Tx based company that is responsible for erecting wind turbines in Logan County.
Flock of Wind Turbines
Don't disturb them.
The Good
- It is infinite and cannot be depleted
- Wind Energy produces no waste products
- This is one of the cheapest types of energy (Wind Energy costs $0.06 per kilowatt hour, Coal burning power plants cost $0.31 per kilowatt hour)
- Wind turbines can be put practically anywhere there is a lot of wind
The Bad
- Generally, locations that are good places to put windmills on, are far from the cities the power would go to
- Land must be secured!
- Low preforming wind turbines may not generate enough money to be cost effective
- Some people consider them an aesthetic pollution
Birds
It is a commonly held belief that wind turbines are destructive to the populations of migrating birds. This simply is not true. The notion that birds are not capable of avoiding slowly spinning blades has been disproved multiple times.
In the United Kingdom, a study was preformed on a small wind farm, consisting of nine turbines, in Blyth, Wales. The wind farm sits in the middle of a large migratory path which is used by several species of birds and can see several thousand avian travelers every day. The farm observed that the rate of birds hitting the turbine was only two per year. In the United Kingdom, more than ten million birds are killed in collisions with cars annually.
Wind Farms In Illinois
We have several fairly sized wind farms spread throughout the state, mostly in rural counties. This presentation focuses on the Railsplitter Farm in Logan County, but some include:
- Railsplitter (Logan and Tazewell)
- Lee-DeKalb (Lee/Dekalb)
- Top Crop (LaSalle)
- California Ridge (Champaign)
Rail Splitter Wind Farm
The Rail Splitter Wind Farm is located in Logan and Tazewell counties. The bulk of the farm sits outside of Hopedale, a town fifty miles north of Springfield. It is one of fourteen commercial wind farms in the state.
- 67 Turbines (2010)
- Each turbine generates 1.5 megawatts of power (300 homes)
- The entire farm generates over 100 megawatts of power (over 30,000 homes)
- Most of the turbines are on property not owned by Horizon