Economic advantages and trends

As recently as 1980, wind power generation cost as much as 40 cents per kWh. However through technology enhancements and better siting and operational practices, wind power now costs between 5 and 7 cents per kWh to generate, making it competitive in price with other conventional forms of electricity generation.

Wind is a good hedge against energy inflation.? Once a wind plant is built, the cost of energy is known and not subject to the extreme volatility of fossil fuel markets.

Adding wind power in New York will reduce demand for, and therefore the price of, natural gas.?Because natural gas plants generally set the market price for electricity in New York, lower gas prices lead to lower electricity prices.? The New York State Public Service Commission, estimates that the addition of this level of wind power to New York's electric grid can save approximately $540 million per year in wholesale energy costs by lowering the market-clearing price for electricity.

Wind power is a force for job growth:

• For every 10-20 turbines installed, one skilled operations and maintenance(O&M) position is created, according to NYSERDA.
• According to a 2005 report by? New York State Comptroller Hevesi:
  • As compared to traditional fossil fuels, renewable energy is a labor-intensivevsector that generates a wide variety of high-wage and high-skilled jobs in: 1) research and development; 2) design and manufacturing; 3) construction and installation of farms; and 4) operations and maintenance.
• Because American companies are developing the technologies that create and support renewable energy, wind power can help to recapture some of the roughly two million manufacturing jobs lost in the US since 2000.
• Renewable technologies create more jobs per MW than coal or natural gas.
• While the Renewable Energy Policy Project (REPP) estimated that 15,880 jobs would directly result from the RPS, Comptroller Hevesi puts total job growth, including indirect employment increases, mostly resulting from wind growth, at 43,000 jobs by 2013.
• Wind energy is a benefit to farmers, who earn about $4,000 - $7,000 per turbine per year in lease payments. This means that, with four turbines, each taking up less than half an acre, a typical farmer could earn between $4,000 and $28,000 per year on top of normal farm income.
• Wind development provides a boost to local economies through payments in lieu of taxes (PILOTs) and other local contributions. For example, the Fenner Wind Power Project in Madison County pays $5,000 per MW per year in PILOTs to the Town of Fenner.? $5,200 per MW is paid to nearby Town of Madison.
• In 2000, 12 percent of electricity purchases were from out-of-state power companies and more than 50 percent of in-state power was derived from out-of-state fossil fuels.? Investment in renewable energy resources in New York will keep energy dollars in our state.

An analysis from the Union of Concerned Scientists finds that switching 10 percent of our electricity to clean energy sources by 2020 could save consumers as much as $13 million over 20 years, due to lower natural gas prices and higher renewable electricity consumption.

Wind power technology and energy security

Wind energy is an inexhaustible, domestic energy source.
Wind plants consist of small individual generators which cannot easily be damaged at the same time and which are easy to replace.

If a wind plant is damaged, there is no secondary threat to the public, such as those that can come from nuclear (radioactivity releases) and conventional power plants (explosions).

Wind plants can be built quickly to respond to electricity shortages
A modern wind turbine (1.5 MW) generates 120 times the power of those in the 1980s at one-sixth the cost and powers about 450 average New York homes.
Modern three-blade units run very slowly, 11-20 rotations per minute, start turning at 5 mph wind speed and shut off at 56 mph.

Although wind energy is variable, PacifiCorp, a major electric utility in the Northwest, recently assigned its wind projects a 20 percent capacity credit.? This means that 20 percent of the total wind energy can be considered base load, like traditional fossil-fuel plants, and that it helps to improve overall utility system reliability.

Wind power technology is steadily improving.? Recent examples include: rotor blade airfoils specially designed for wind turbines, variable-speed generators, power electronics, and sophisticated computer modeling of design changes.

Environmental and human health benefits

Wind power offsets energy from other polluting sources.? That is important because electric generation is the largest industrial source of air emissions in New York State.? When wind projects generate electricity, fuel at other power plants is not burned.

NYSERDA found that if wind energy supplied 10 percent (3,300 MW) of the state's peak electricity demand, 65 percent of the energy it displaced would come from natural gas, 15 percent from coal, 10 percent from oil, and 10 percent from electricity imports.? This equates to an annual displacement of 6,400 tons of nitrogen oxides and 12,000 tons of sulfur dioxide.

Based on this information, employing a single 1.5-MW wind turbine, powering 450 average homes year after year, avoids emissions of:

• 5,818 pounds of nitrogen oxides (the pollutant that forms smog)
• 10,909 pounds of sulfur dioxide (the major precursor of acid rain)
• 2,257 tons of carbon dioxide (the primary global warming pollutant), equal to planting 307,047 trees to absorb the carbon dioxide that would otherwise come from a fossil-fuel plant.
• Half a pound of mercury (a powerful neurotoxin)

Using the same assumptions, the 30-MW Fenner Wind Farm displaces power plants releasing:

• 58 tons of nitrogen oxides
• 109 tons of sulfur dioxide
• 45,136 tons of carbon dioxide (equivalent to planting 6 million trees)
• 6 pounds of mercury

Pre-construction avian site surveys are now standard, bringing the threat to birds to low levels. Studies show that domestic cats and buildings pose a much greater risk to birds when wind farms are properly sited.

Bat collisions are an issue only at a few Eastern ridgeline sites, and the industry is funding an ambitious research effort with conservation groups to reduce mortality.

At proper setback distances, noise is not an issue.? The swooshing of the blades and the whirring of the generator, as measured at a setback distance of 1,000 feet, is nearly undetectable.? At 43-45 decibels, the level of kitchen refrigerator, this noise could not be heard above the sounds of a quiet, suburban residential area (48-52 decibels).? Whats more, under moderately high-wind conditions, noise from the turbines is drowned out by the sound of the wind itself.

Resource conservation

Wind energy is an inexhaustible, domestic resource helping reduce our dependence on imports of natural gas, oil and other fuels, often from politically unstable countries.? The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) estimates that the wind farms already in place save over 13.7 million cubic feet of natural gas per day per year.

Wind energy requires no mining, drilling, or transportation of fuel, and does not generate radioactive or other hazardous or polluting wastes.
To generate the same amount of electricity as a single 1.5-MW wind turbine for 20 years would require burning 79,830 pounds of coal or 125,580 barrels of oil.?

Natural gas supplies in North America are being depleted and current US natural gas shortfall is about 3-4 billion cubic feet per day.? New York State wind generation is equivalent to burning more than 3.4 million cubic feet per day.? By expanding wind generation and building wind pipelines, price spikes can be avoided and gas supplies conserved.

The 30-MW Fenner project, based on the current fuel mix in the state, annually avoids the use of:

• 505 million cubic feet of natural gas
• 1,973 pounds of coal
• 12,858 barrels of oil

The emissions from the manufacture and installation of turbines are negligible.

To generate the same amount of electricity as a single 1-MW wind turbine with fossil fuels or nuclear power requires, on average, roughly 60 million gallons of water a year from streams or rivers, of which nearly one million gallons is lost to evaporation.