Wind Energy

In 2005, wind energy generated over 17 billion kilowatt-hours in the U.S. in 2005, enough electricity to power 1.6 million homes. By 2020, wind energy could supply about 6% of the nation’s electricity. The tremendous potential of wind energy to provide a clean, economical and renewable supply of electricity must be weighed against the potential for wind energy development to result in bird mortality, and the potential that wind farms could degrade important habitat.

General Principles for Wind Energy Production

While there are many advantages to expanding the use of wind energy to generate heat electricity and replace gasoline as automotive fuel, we also recognize that even clean, renewable energy can have environmental impacts. Defenders of Wildlife supports the following principles regarding wind energy production.

Wind Energy Production Should:

  • Minimize bird and bat mortality
  • Avoid incompatible land uses
  • Avoid creating nuisances to humans

Learn more about these general principles for wind energy production

Detailed Recommendations For Wind Energy

Defenders of Wildlife supports the use of wind energy, but we have a number of detailed recommendations for the development this resource in a manner that reduces adverse impacts on wildlife habitat and the environment.  The recommendations range from avoiding destruction of native habitat to proper design of turbines to minimize bird and bat mortality.

Learn more about each of our recommendations.

Additional Information

A large number of publications and analysis have been written with regard to wind energy. See a list of these resources.