When I was a kid, wind didn't come from farms

Wind Turbines: 

  

Article 1:

 In a time of reportedly dwindling fossil fuels and possible anthropogenic climate change, alternative energy sources are all the rage.  They include solar, geothermal, water, and the focus of topic this week: wind.  Wind turbines are popular in some circles because the only thing required for them to generate power is, well, wind.  Basically wind turns the blades (like a fan) and the resulting turbine spinning powers a generator which produces electricity.  Of course, these turbines are also seen as a nuisance and are unwanted in some people's eyes.  Take for example, a wind turbine which actually collapsed in Devon, a village in Bradworthy, England this past week.  It had been controversial from their conception because of popular misconceptions that they are loud, eyesores, and threats to wildlife (Delingpole 2013).  The author goes on to further express his beliefs on the subject: 

     Although this does not particularly reflect any partisan belief (at least not in the classic Democrat/Republican sense seeing as it is written about an instance in England), Delingpole is adamantly against wind turbines, not necessarily against all forms of alternative energy, but definitely wind turbines.  He uses the unaesthetic qualities of the turbines and the appeal to people's love of animals to illustrate how bad they are, but never actually discusses the monetary effect on the community or includes any empirical data to support his opinion.  But seeing as it is an online editorial blog for the England paper The Telegraph, the lack of scientific data is unsurprising, his end goal is to appeal to the emotions of the readers, not bore them with charts and numbers.

(http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100200909/wind-turbines-not-just-hateful-but-ruddy-dangerous-too/)

Article 2:

       However, not everyone in the world has a problem with wind energy.  It seems to me to be the most frequently available (currently) source of alternative energy that is offered by large municipal companies.  Even the national government is taking steps to ensure that wind turbines be built across the country.  In October 2012, the US government approved construction of a wind farm in Wyoming that upon completion could contain up 1000 wind turbines, making it the largest such farm in North America (McLendon 2012).  It would generate up to 3,000 megawatts a year, enough to power almost a million homes (McLendon 2012).  The article also mentions how this is a result of the promise President Obama made that year in his presidential address to ramp up alternative fuel sources.  

      The author of this article, Russell McLendon, writes for the ecojournalist blog on the website of the Mother Nature Network.  With his entry, he appears to take a nonpartisan interest and is purely trying to present that fact that the wind farm will begin construction in the coming months.  He takes time to address the wildlife concerns of environmentalists/bird lovers because turbines sometimes are erected in the flight paths of birds and other flying creatures.  He then references Dan Ashe's (director of the US Fish and Wildlife Service) response to the concern of conservationists:






Despite seemingly nonpartisan, McLendon seems in support of the idea.  He frequently uses facts about the energy benefits of wind turbines in an effort to appeal to the rationale that this will be the next step in the right direction for the renewable energy sector.
(http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/energy/blogs/us-approves-huge-wind-farm-in-wyoming)

Article 3:
      An article I found (actually published today) discusses a new wind turbine which GE has released.  GE calls it its "first brilliant wind turbine" (Casey 2013).  Essentially, it is a wind turbine designed specifically to deal with the fluctuations in wind patterns that regularly occurs on any wind farm, so it is especially efficient in areas that do not receive large quantities of wind.  It is able to control itself through an advanced analytic control system that maintains its efficiency.  It is the first in a long line of machinery with adaptive management capabilities built in that GE hopes to continue producing.
     The author, Tina Casey, regularly reports on new technology for some websites such as cleantechnica.com and triplepundit.com.  She is also a the Deputy Director of Public Information for a county in New Jersey.  Her intended audience are those who are skeptical about GE's new "brilliant" wind turbine and possibly even wind energy in general.  By titling her piece "How Smart is GE's 'brilliant' new wind turbine?" she is expressing that she herself is questionable, or at least wishes to appear that way.  She even includes an advertisement for the new turbine created by GE.

This ad effectually makes it so that people come to trust the new turbine.  It looks like a child drew it, so it has an air of innocence about it, and it describes in layman's terms how the turbines function and the benefits that will arise from their use.  Casey is in favor of the new turbine.
(http://cleantechnica.com/2013/02/01/new-ge-wind-turbine-is-smart-and-brilliant/)


Works Cited:

"How Smart Is GE’s “Brilliant” New Wind Turbine?" Tina Casey, accessed February 1, 2013,       
      http://cleantechnica.com/2013/02/01/new-ge-wind-turbine-is-smart-and-brilliant/.

"U.S. approves huge wind farm in Wyoming," Russell McLendon, accessed February 1, 2013,
      http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/energy/blogs/us-approves-huge-wind-farm-in-wyoming.

"Wind turbines- not just hateful but ruddy dangerous too!" James Delingpole, accessed February 1, 2013,
      http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100200909/wind-turbines-not-just-hateful-but-ruddy-
      dangerous-too.