IGNYTE Magazine Issue 05 | Page 31

Manufacturing a wind turbine consumes more energy than the machine will be able to generate.

FALSE

A wind turbine offsets the energy used to make it in less than a year – and can function for over 30 years. Every wind turbine generates enough clean energy to cover the electrical demand from some 2,000 homes*. Moreover, the emissions produced by the manufacture and dismantling of a wind turbine represent around 1% of those it will avoid during its useful life in replacing production from coal, gas or fuel oil power stations, and this without counting the CO2 emitted during the building of those fossil fuel stations, nor the extraction or transport of fuel to those plants.

Wind turbines are very noisy.

FALSE

The noise produced by a moving wind turbine at a distance of less than 500 meters, within which there are rarely homes anyway, is no greater than that produced by an electrodomestic appliance such as a fridge or microwave. Wind farms also have to comply with local regulations with respect to noise levels during the day and night and cannot exceed the limits established by law.