"The federal government has to subsidize windmill production through production tax credits of about 1.8¢ per kilowatt. Wind Farms also receive an accelerated depreciation. Wind farms are also land intensive. They produce a fraction of the energy of a traditional power plant but they require 100 times the acreage.
From the National Center for Policy Analysis: to produce a 1000 megawatt power plant a wind farm would require 192,000 acres or 300 square miles. A nuclear plant would need about 1700 acres (or 2.65 mi2), and about 3 mi2 for a coal fired power plant. The transmission lines for the wind turbines would be massive, 12,000 miles just for the array."
We have a windmill farm in NW Indiana, clearly visible from I-65, near Lafayette. I have no idea how much energy it produces, but I’ll say this: one windmill is quaint-looking; an entire windfarm takes up a huge geographic footprint, and is an eyesore. I can’t believe environmentalists go for this. Not only are they ugly, surely they kill birds and affect other wildlife.