Wind misinformation

I hope Sun Journal staff members will do some research and stop filling their reports on wind power with every piece of misinformation that comes down the pike. For a while, it was the repeated rumors about the health effects of nearby windmills. Now it’s how wind towers affect radar.

I flew over miles and miles of wind power towers into Denmark more than 30 years ago.

There I visited Tvind Folk School where students had constructed what was at that time the largest wind power source in the world. The three-bladed 2-megawatt generator was on a 53-foot tower. It was bigger than NASA’s power station at that time. Wind power provided 19.7 percent of electricity production and 24.1 percent of capacity in Denmark in 2007. Denmark is now planning a 50 percent increase in wind power by 2025.

I heard no complaints of noise, health or radar interruption. Even the negative studies of Denmark’s wind power have not mentioned any, although one false report claimed wind power absorbed more energy than it produced.

Maine’s mountains and offshore wind could become the source of new industries in Maine. I hope that the Sun Journal will do some in-depth research on Maine’s potential. Maine could be a major source for energy on the East Coast to replace the oil from the Arab world.

Bill Ellis, Rangeley