GE Energy - Why Wind Power?

Ask students why they think wind power is a good thing.

Wind power is a clean energy source. Its fuel is the wind. It produces no pollution.
Wind power is a renewable energy source. New wind is created every day by the heating and cooling of the earth.
The price of wind power is not affected by fuel price increases or supply disruptions.
Wind power creates jobs. The American Wind Energy Association estimates that 10,500 direct jobs and more than 11,000 indirect jobs have been created in the United States by wind energy production.
Due to technological advances, wind power costs as little as three to five cents per kilowatt hour.
The land used for wind turbines can also be used for other purposes such as grazing and farmland.
Wind power can help save family farms by providing ongoing income for farming families.
Wind plants can be built quickly to respond to electricity shortages.
The United States uses about 90 quadrillion BTUs of energy in a year.
Most of this electricity is created from fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas.
Wind power provides less than half of one percent of the electricity for the U.S., but could provide much more.
There is enough wind and windy areas in the U.S. to produce three times as much electricity as the U.S. uses today.
U.S. winds could generate more electricity in 15 years than all of Saudi Arabia's oil, without being depleted.

One Wind Energy 1.5 MW wind turbine can produce enough clean electricity for about 400 homes each year.
A Wind Energy 1.5 MW wind turbine is more than 328 feet tall at its tallest point (that's taller than a 32 story building).
A Wind Energy 1.5 MW wind turbine weighs about 92 tons.
Just one blade from the 1.5 MW wind turbine is 112 feet long (that's more than 37 yards on a football field).

Americans waste a lot of electricity every day. Walk through your home and write a down list of ways that you can help save energy.

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