Frequently Asked Questions
Q. I live in a municipal light plant town. Can my town still get grants from you?
A. We are in the process of working out our policies towards towns who get their power from local plants. Since these towns do not pay into the Renewable Energy Trust’s budget through their utility bills, they must receive a lower priority from us.
Q. How long does the process of building a turbine or farm take, from concept to construction?
A. The time required to get a modern turbine online, from concept to construction, varies greatly depending on the people and organizations involved. Although the actual construction occurs quickly, it takes at least a year to test the wind speeds at a given site, and before that testing can begin, permits and zoning ordinances must be passed. If a town is willing and moves quickly, it can take as little as two years, but often takes much longer.
Q. Approximately how much money does it cost us to construct a wind turbine, and what will be the profit turnover per megawatt?
A. The pre-construction costs of siting, feasibility studies, and the required equipment and personnel ranges from about $100,000 to $175,000. However, the Community Wind Collaborative often provides the vast majority of this to our grantees.
Q. How much pollution does a wind turbine displace megawatt-for-megawatt in relation to coal, gas, oil, etc?
A. A single 1-MW turbine displaces 2,000 tons of carbon dioxide each year (equivalent to planting a square mile of forest), based on the current average U.S. utility fuel mix.
To generate the same amount of electricity as a single 1-MW turbine using the average U.S. utility fuel mix would mean emissions of 10 tons of sulfur dioxide and 6 tons of nitrogen oxide each year.
To generate the same amount of electricity as a single 1-MW wind turbine for 20 years would require burning 26,000 tons of coal (a line of 10-ton trucks 10 miles long) or 87,000 barrels of oil
To generate the same amount of electricity as today's U.S. wind turbine fleet (6,374 MW) would require burning 8.6 million tons of coal (a line of 10-ton trucks 4,321 miles long) or 28 million barrels of oil each year
100,000 MW of wind energy will reduce carbon dioxide production by nearly 200 million tons annually
Q. Do wind turbines make a lot of noise?
A. At a quarter mile away, a wind turbine is as quiet as a kitchen refrigerator.
Q. Do wind turbines affect local wildlife, for example by killing birds or destroying bear habitats?
A. Although some of the first turbines built out in California were problematic for local wildlife, we have made great advances in minimizing or eliminating harmful environmental impacts due to improved siting procedures and new technologies.
Q. Does the electricity generated from community turbines actually power our town?
A. This depends on how the turbine is hooked into the grid. If the turbine is on a transmission level grid, then the electrons it generates are dispersed to the general public. If it is at distributed level generation, then your homes and businesses would actually be directly powered by the turbine(s) in part. However, there is no practical difference in terms of how much money this would save the town as it all counts towards your electric bill.
Q. Why aren’t there more wind turbines around?
A. Wind technology has only recently become competitive with other, dirtier forms of electric generation, and thus is only beginning to be accepted in the United States. Many European countries have been using wind power for years, and we are now beginning to catch up.