Wind energy, revisited

Wind..it’s clean, and does not produce climate-changing greenhouse gasses...

But problems associated with modern wind turbines threaten the growth of wind as an alternative energy source. Birds and bats have been killed by the spinning blades, the motion of the blades can show up on flight controller’s radar, and noise is an issue for people who live near wind turbines.

Twenty years of using modern wind technology has led to some improvements; siting wind turbines now takes into account migratory routes and roosting sites of birds and bats. Engineers are working to make the turbine blades less visible to radar and less noisy.

Ultimately, however, changing negative attitudes toward wind farms must involve more than technological fixes and include public education of the benefits and tradeoffs of wind energy technology.

Source: E. Kintisch, Science 329:788-789