We need wind farms . . . on land

More electricity in the U.S. is now generated by renewable energy than by coal. This milestone was passed in 2022. Besides a hopeful sign of progress in phasing out the burning of atmosphere-heating fossil fuel to make electricity, it is a rebuke to climate-change nonbelievers who have disparaged renewable energy as some sort of environmentalists’ fantasy that can’t succeed without government subsidy.

The rapid growth of renewables is driven by economics. Renewable energy is not only cleaner than coal and gas-fueled electricity, it is cheaper. In much of the country, it is now the most affordable source of new energy.

That assessment comes from the American Council on Renewable Energy. The organization also reported that in the last decade the cost of wind energy decreased by 70% and the solar energy cost fell by 90%.

Wind energy supplies about 12% of the country’s electricity. That share is expected to increase rapidly, which may pose a dilemma for people living on the coasts of the Great Lakes, especially those who value the grandeur of the world’s largest expanse of freshwater but also understand the role of renewable energy in combating climate change.

The lakes are being targeted as sites for wind farms, which begs a question: Is cluttering the lakes’ magnificent expanses of natural beauty with towering machines worth the trade off for the contributions to clean energy provided by offshore turbines?

Energy companies have been eyeing the wind power potential of the Great Lakes for years, but as yet there are no wind turbines on any of the lakes. That may change soon. A pilot project to erect six turbines on Lake Erie only eight miles from Cleveland has been approved.

Several proposals for wind farms on Lake Michigan have appeared in recent years, but did not get beyond the talking stage. An Illinois legislator, however, has introduced a bill meant to advance the idea of wind turbines in Illinois coastal waters.

Wind farm developers are attracted to the Great Lakes by their abundant supply of wind uninterrupted by land features. A map that charts world wind resources shows some of the strongest wind on the oceans off North America’s coasts and on the entire surface area of the Great Lakes.

Scientists have identified markedly stronger wind as one of the present-day effects of climate change. Professional and recreational mariners who ply Lake Michigan waters know they are right. They are facing challenging conditions offshore more frequently, with wind that is not only stronger on average, but reaches velocities once considered extreme and with longer durations. Gales that last for days are now commonplace.

There would be a sort of ironic justice in harnessing the wind energized by global warming to help defeat it, but it would come at an unacceptable cost. A scare experienced in the Village of Pentwater, Mich., across the lake from Ozaukee County, in 2011 illustrates the cost, as reported by SAILING Magazine (published in Port Washington):

“Townspeople gathered at a public hearing to learn about a proposed offshore wind farm that would erect as many as 200 turbines in a 10-square-mile area of the lake. When the project developers displayed a large digital image showing what a lake view would look like after construction of the farm, a collective gasp rose from the audience.”

The gasp was in response to “a rendition of a view generations of Pentwater residents and visitors had admired, but with something added—ranks of towering turbines interrupting the once pure horizon from edge to edge of an image many miles wide.”

The Great Lakes are a priceless natural treasure, and much of their worth derives from the purity of the images they provide, reaches of water gifted by melting glaciers 20,000 years ago that appear boundless to viewers.

Imagine walking on the Port Washington breakwater to the lighthouse, looking east to savor a lake view and seeing—a field of wind turbines.

Natural treasures are no places for wind farms. They are as wrong for the Great Lakes as they would be for Yellowstone National Park or a cliff overlooking the Grand Canyon.

Wind farms are a crucial element of the existential quest to end dependence on fossil fuel, but in placing them their costs must be weighed honestly against their benefits. Those costs include the damage they would inflict on the timeless beauty of the Great Lakes. We know that a healthier environment will come with a price, but that price is too high.