Energy: War of The Winds

Many European countries are way ahead of the U.S. on the wind front. Germany alone produces more than a third of the world's 47 MW of wind energy. This June, when a wind farm in Ceredigion, Wales, came online, Britain became one of eight nations producing more than 1 billion watts--or a gigawatt--of wind-generated electricity. "We're in an exponential growth phase," says Alison Hill of the British Wind Energy Association. "It has taken us 14 years to get our first gig. It'll take 14 months to get our second."

But if wind is gaining force around the world, the opposition is making gains as well. The first offshore wind-power project in the U.S., in Massachusetts' Nantucket Sound, has met with stiff resistance from well-heeled beachfront residents, including Senator Ted Kennedy. In New York, Tom Golisano, the billionaire founder of Paychex Inc., is leading the fight against a plan to build hundreds of turbines in the west of the state, near the Great Lakes. And an odd alliance of environmentalists, oil and gas interests and ranchers has emerged to legally thwart a wind farm planned for the Flint Hills of Kansas, one of the last pristine tallgrass prairies in the U.S. About 100 local antiwind groups have emerged in Germany, and in France, which has just 440 wind farms but hopes to operate 7,000 by 2010, such groups have banded together to form a national network named Wind of Anger.

Scenery isn't the only concern. Noise and light pollution often enliven the debate. Kelly Alexander, who lives about 500 yds. from two turbines in northern Michigan, watched his property value drop from $102,000 in 1999 to $96,000 in 2002. The tax assessor's form attributed the markdown to "noise from two wind generating systems." Alexander says when the rotors catch the sun at particular angles, a flickering light permeates his house. Indeed, it isn't easy to sell a house that sits near a turbine. Julie and Bart Thiry of Kewaunee County, Wis., who live in a ranch house 800 ft. away from the nearest of five turbines, believe that the windmills are somehow responsible for the persistent headaches of their 8- and 9-year-old daughters. Bart, a school bus driver and janitor, says when he tried to sell the house, he couldn't get an offer.

Randall Swisher, executive director of the American Wind Energy Association, says complaints about noise from turbines are grossly exaggerated. "If you ever visit a wind farm," he says, "you will notice that the wind often makes more noise than the turbine." Still, Invenergy, the firm that will develop Mackinaw Power's part of the western Michigan initiative, often pays homeowners who live near its turbines $800 to $1,000 a year in compensation, says Invenergy's senior development manager, Joel Link. As for the putative threat to scenery posed by towering turbines, wind-power supporters point out that tourists often flock to wind farms. But such arguments aren't likely to defuse the growing conflict in Oceana County. "People also come to look at train wrecks," retorts Ted Cuchna, president of a local construction company. "I don't want a train wreck in my back yard." In Oceana County, the war over wind has just begun.