San Gorgonio's wind farms: prospect or problem

San Gorgonio Wind Farm is one of three major wind farms that provide 95% of California's wind generating capacity (and 30% of the world's wind generating capacity). This amounts of 4258 million kilowatt hours of electricity, or 1.5% of the state's total electricity production (California Energy Commission, 2011). Wind energy is considered to be one of the 'clean' energy sources, as opposed to fossil fuel production and nuclear energy production in particular. However, wind farms have their own drawbacks as well from an environmental perspective. Wind farms can be devastating to the local environment as they have a massive footprint. This is especially troublesome in desert environments such as that occupied by San Gorgonio. There are also visual impacts, noise produced by rotor blades and potentially high degrees of avian/bat mortality (WINDEIS, n.d.). This paper will analyze the benefits and impacts of the San Gorgonio Wind Farm, in particular with respect to its impacts on Riverside County.

Positive Impacts of the San Gorgonio Wind Farm

The primary advantage of wind farms, as cited by proponents, is that they are a relatively low-impact form of electricity generation. Compared with coal, nuclear or even hydroelectric power, wind farms do not contribute as much to atmospheric pollution or environmental degradation. The generation of electricity is one of the major sources of atmospheric pollution in the United States. Wind power does not have these sources of pollution because the only source of power at San Gorgonio is the wind (ECW, 2000). The San Gorgonio pass is one of the windiest parts of the United States, so the farm is well-situated to gain maximum electricity output for the environmental downsides that do occur.

The San Gorgonio Pass Wind Farm contains over 4000 windmills. It is vast, stretching across most of the pass area. While it produces a substantial amount of power, this power only amounts to a sufficient amount to power Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley (Palm Springs.com, 2011). For society, this is a net benefit because it results in dramatically reduced air pollution in the valley. Electricity is generated at a low cost because of the economies of scale that the wind farm enjoys. However, there are downsides including the visual pollution and the fact that increased energy availability encourages more population in the valley, which based on the physical environment cannot sustain life, let alone hundreds of thousands of people using electricity to run their homes, offices and ozone-depleting air conditioners. If the wind farm was used to power more sustainable geographic regions of Riverside County, that would deliver a greater benefit to society. A contrasting view is that the wind farm can hardly be blamed for unsustainable population increase in the valley.

For the environment, the wind farm can be seen as generally positive. The balance to be evaluated is the damage done to the ecosystem compared to the damage done by air pollution that other sources of power would create. The desert ecosystem is fragile, which means that whatever life there is would be threatened by the farm's existence. That damage is done already, however. Any further action taken with respect to the wind farm must consider only incremental damage, of which there is little since the ecosystem has already suffered. In addition, there is little life that can be supported in the area around the wind farm -- however fragile, there is little of it to be lost. The positive is that the wind farm all but eliminates air pollution. However, much of the pollution would come from coal plants elsewhere in the state. Likewise, nuclear and hydroelectric energy would probably be generated outside of the valley anyway, so the only positive pollution impacts are to other areas. By having the wind farm, the valley creates its own energy and suffers whatever downside environmental impacts that this energy generation might create.

The most significant form of opposition to wind farms appears to be from those who are opposed to the visual impacts they produce (Pasqualetti, 2011). This opposition, however, should not affect San Gorgonio because the farm already exists -- tearing it down would only increase visual pollution. Expanding the wind farm, however, could increase visual pollution as well and this may meet with opposition. It is reasonable, however, to ignore such minor concerns as aesthetics when examining the bigger picture surrounding wind farm development.

Conclusions

In general, wind farms such as the one as San Gorgonio Pass have a net benefit for society, and for the valley specifically. San Gorgonio is a source of energy that does not create air pollution, does not damage watersheds and does not create nuclear waste. While there are some spinoff issues such as the disincentive to reduce energy consumption, those issues are generally larger than the wind farm issue itself. The wind farm does create significant damage to the environment on which it sits. This environment is typically quite sensitive. At this point, however, that damage has already been done. Only incremental growth of the wind farm can create incremental damage.

There does not appear to be strong public opposition to the wind farm, now that it is already in place. There may remain some complaints about the visual appearance of the wind farm, but these complaints are more a matter of personal taste than a legitimate weighing of the pros and cons of a wind farm at San Gorgonio vs. alternate sources of electricity generation. As such, these arguments against the wind farm can generally be ignored.

The cost of wind power has decreased significantly in the past few decades and wind power is renewable. This means that it is one form of energy that has the potential to power the entire nation. However, the example of San Gorgonio shows that it takes a significant amount of land in order to power even a small portion of the country. In one of the nation's windiest places, a massive wind farm only powers its local area. Could Los Angeles or San Francisco be powered with locally-generated wind power? This is unlikely.