San Gorgonio Wind Farm Is One of Research Paper

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San Gorgonio Wind Farm is one of three major wind farms that provide 95% of California's wind generating capacity (and 30% of the world's wind generating capacity). This amounts of 4258 million kilowatt hours of electricity, or 1.5% of the state's total electricity production (California Energy Commission, 2011). Wind energy is considered to be one of the 'clean' energy sources, as opposed to fossil fuel production and nuclear energy production in particular. However, wind farms have their own drawbacks as well from an environmental perspective. Wind farms can be devastating to the local environment as they have a massive footprint. This is especially troublesome in desert environments such as that occupied by San Gorgonio. There are also visual impacts, noise produced by rotor blades and potentially high degrees of avian/bat mortality (WINDEIS, n.d.). This paper will analyze the benefits and impacts of the San Gorgonio Wind Farm, in particular with respect to its impacts on Riverside County.

Positive Impacts of the San Gorgonio Wind Farm

The primary advantage of wind farms, as cited by proponents, is that they are a relatively low-impact form of electricity generation. Compared with coal, nuclear or even hydroelectric power, wind farms do not contribute as much to atmospheric pollution or environmental degradation. The generation of electricity is one of the major sources of atmospheric pollution in the United States. Wind power does not have these sources of pollution because the only source of power at San Gorgonio is the wind (ECW, 2000). The San Gorgonio pass is one of the windiest parts of the United States, so the farm is well-situated to gain maximum electricity output for the environmental downsides that do occur.

The San Gorgonio Pass Wind Farm contains over 4000 windmills. It is vast, stretching across most of the pass area. While it produces a substantial amount of power, this power only amounts to a sufficient amount to power Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley (Palm Springs.

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com, 2011). For society, this is a net benefit because it results in dramatically reduced air pollution in the valley. Electricity is generated at a low cost because of the economies of scale that the wind farm enjoys. However, there are downsides including the visual pollution and the fact that increased energy availability encourages more population in the valley, which based on the physical environment cannot sustain life, let alone hundreds of thousands of people using electricity to run their homes, offices and ozone-depleting air conditioners. If the wind farm was used to power more sustainable geographic regions of Riverside County, that would deliver a greater benefit to society. A contrasting view is that the wind farm can hardly be blamed for unsustainable population increase in the valley.

For the environment, the wind farm can be seen as generally positive. The balance to be evaluated is the damage done to the ecosystem compared to the damage done by air pollution that other sources of power would create. The desert ecosystem is fragile, which means that whatever life there is would be threatened by the farm's existence. That damage is done already, however. Any further action taken with respect to the wind farm must consider only incremental damage, of which there is little since the ecosystem has already suffered. In addition, there is little life that can be supported in the area around the wind farm -- however fragile, there is little of it to be lost. The positive is that the wind farm all but eliminates air pollution. However, much of the pollution would come from coal plants elsewhere in the state. Likewise, nuclear and hydroelectric energy would probably be generated outside of the valley anyway, so the only positive pollution impacts are to other areas.….....

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