Resource Library Category: Environment (97 items)
Documents presented here are not the product of nor are they necessarily endorsed by National Wind Watch. This resource library is provided to assist anyone wishing to research the issue of industrial wind power and the impacts of its development. The information should be evaluated by each reader to come to their own conclusions about the many areas of debate.
Open Letter to Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH)
Author: Bellamy, David; and Duchamp, Mark
It is disturbing to wildlife conservationists such as ourselves, and we know it is equally disturbing to our numerous Scottish friends, that you should assist in the destruction of Scotland’s remarkable and precious wilderness. Your raison d’être is to preserve this natural heritage ; yet you are time and again endorsing the installation of wind farms in unspoilt landscapes of great beauty, or in natural habitats that are essential to the conservation of endangered birds.
Bird reserves are not even spared . . .
Climate Impact of Surface Roughness Anomalies
Author: Kirk-Davidoff, Daniel; and Keith, David
Abstract
Large-scale deployment of wind power may alter climate through alteration of surface roughness. Previous research using GCMs has shown large-scale impacts of surface roughness perturbations but failed to elucidate the dynamic mechanisms that drove the observed responses in surface temperature. Using the NCAR Community Atmosphere Model in both its standard and aquaplanet forms, the authors have explored the impact of isolated surface roughness anomalies on the model climate. A consistent Rossby wave response in the mean winds to roughness anomalies . . .
Weather response to management of a large wind turbine array
Author: Barrie, D. B.; and Kirk-Davidoff, D. B.
Abstract. Electrical generation by wind turbines is increasing rapidly, and has been projected to satisfy 15% of world electric demand by 2030. The extensive installation of wind farms would alter surface roughness and significantly impact the atmospheric circulation, due to the additional surface roughness forcing. This forcing could be changed deliberately by adjusting the attitude of the turbine blades with respect to the wind. Using a General Circulation Model (GCM), we represent a continent-scale wind farm as a distributed array . . .
Direct and rebuttal testimony of Pamela Dodds
Author: Dodds, Pam
‘As a member of the Laurel Mountain Preservation Association (“LMPA”), I elected to assess certain portions of AES Laurel Mountain, LLC’s (“AES”) Application and provide my professional analysis as to the quality and depth of the data pertaining to the surface water and groundwater impacts provided in the Application. In addition, I utilized the data I gathered in a visit to the site of the proposed facility to formulate my own assessment of what the likely impacts to surface . . .
Re: Impact on water resources of Laurel Mountain wind project
Author: Dodds, Pam
To: Director, Division of Water and Waste Management, DEP; Attention: Carrie Taylor, Permitting Section
“I respectfully request that you deny an NPDES permit for Application Number WVR104137 and that a public hearing be held concerning Application Number WVR104137. Construction activities for the proposed project along approximately 9 miles of ridgetop on Laurel Mountain will have negative impacts on the quality and quantity of water resources.”
Download original document: “Impact on water resources of Laurel Mountain wind project”
Request to suspend work of FWS Wind Turbine Guidelines Advisory Committee
Author: Glitzenstein, Eric
The unmistakable import of [many statements] in the draft is that wildlife impacts that would be deemed unacceptable in the context of different kinds of projects should somehow be excused because of the "larger effects of climate change" on wildlife. Although it is indisputable that global climate change poses an enormous threat to wildlife, that affords no legal, scientific, or even logical basis for allowing wind projects to be constructed and sited in such a manner as to decimate bat and bird populations, or to significantly harm wildlife in other ways – as, unfortunately, is and will be the case with many operating and planned wind power projects.
Wind energy farm erosion, McLean County, Ill. (photos)
Author: Anon.
Twin Groves Wind Farm, located mostly in McLean County east of Bloomington, Ill., currently has 240 1.65-MW Vestas turbines. The second phase of 120 was completed early 2008. At least 240 more are planned by Horizon in this area to [create] one of the largest future wind farms in the US.
According to Wikipedia: “McLean County boasts some of the richest soil in the world. Only patches of farmland in Argentina, southern Ukraine and along the Yellow River in China match . . .
Dissenting opinion in grant of permit for Deerfield wind project
Author: Burke, John
Docket No. 7250
I respectfully dissent from the Board’s decision to grant a CPG for the Deerfield Project. I do agree with my colleagues’ determinations that the Project will have adverse impacts on black bears and bear habitat, and that as proposed the Project offers insufficient benefits to offset those adverse impacts. Where I depart from the majority is their apparent conclusion that Deerfield can develop a plan that will sufficiently mitigate the impacts to bears and enter into purchase power . . .
Denial of permission for met towers in George Washington National Forest
Author: U.S. Forest Service
Date: April 2, 2009
Timothy Williamson
Freedomworks, LLC
525 Wren Lane
Harpers Ferry, WV 25425
Dear Mr. Williamson:
This letter is sent in response to your application for permit to install three Meteorological Towers (MET) on Great North Mountain, located on the Lee Ranger District of the George Washington National Forest. The purpose of the towers is to collect meteorological data. As you indicated, the data collected will aid in preparation of a future proposal to install 131 wind turbines, each . . .
Charter of Palermo
Author: Palermo Wind Energy Conference
After a two day international conference in Palermo, the representatives of twenty important cultural and environmental organizations, artists and academics, in the presence of Honourable former President of the French Republic, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, at the invitation of the Honourable President of the Sicily Region, express their great concern about the ongoing devastation of the European rural landscape caused by wind power plants.
The European landscape in its beauty is a treasure of European culture, and has been entrusted for centuries . . .
