Wind turbines make our air dirty
The Roanoke Times | www.roanoke.com
I have a concerns about putting wind turbines in Botetourt County. Government mandates requiring renewable energy (wind turbines) have been making the air dirtier.
As of right now, wind turbines must be backed up by conventional power plants (read coal and natural gas) for times when the wind slows or stops altogether. Since it often takes many hours to get conventional power plants running to function as backups, they are kept running at a rate great enough to take over for the wind turbines.
Much of the country is creating power with two systems at the same time! This creates additional pollution not only through energy-intensive production of the turbines themselves, but because the energy must be provided in the exact amount needed at the very time it is needed to avoid damage to the electricity transmission systems. The plants often must be moderated to follow the wind fluctuations, which causes them to burn additional fuel and release additional sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and mercury into the air.
These giant pinwheels are wasteful, inefficient and make our air dirty.
Just saying.
NANCY KAMWELL
FINCASTLE
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2020/03/13/wind-turbines-make-our-air-dirty/