Climate Action
5 Myths About Wind Energy That Will Blow You Away
September 2, 2025
We have been harnessing the power of the wind for thousands of years: it helped ancient Egyptians propel their vessels down the river Nile, the Chinese, as early as 200 BC, to pump water and from the 7th to 9th centuries in Persia was used to grind grain.
Wind energy is pretty much the rock star of renewables worldwide—and the biggest headliner in the U.S. renewable concert, providing over 10% of America’s electricity. Thanks to wind, our atmosphere dodges 351 million metric tons of carbon dioxide every year. That’s a lot of hot air we’re not letting hang around—literally! Carbon dioxide is the major greenhouse gas that traps heat like a clingy ex, driving climate change and global warming. Not something up for debate; it’s fact, plain and simple.
Now, here’s a fun stat: a 2020-model wind turbine can spin up enough juice in just 46 minutes to power your average American home for a whole month. Talk about efficient multitasking!
Yet, despite all this green goodness, wind energy still gets a bad rap. The current Administration? Let’s just say they’re not sending wind turbines thank you notes anytime soon. So, let’s blow away five common myths about wind power and show why they’re just full of hot air—because wind energy deserves better than that!
1. Wind is For the Woke?
Think wind energy is just a trend of the “woke”? Think again. Nearly 70% of America’s wind power is cranked out in states proudly flying the Republican flag. These red states are quietly leading the charge on wind energy, proving clean power isn’t just a blue state fad.
Let’s talk Texas, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, and North Dakota: the wind energy powerhouses where thousands of jobs in manufacturing, installation, and maintenance are keeping the turbines spinning and the economy humming. Want proof? Iowa bagged over 1,100 clean energy jobs thanks to wind turbine projects supported by the Inflation Reduction Act alone.
Across these states and others like Georgia and Nevada, clean energy factories have whipped up more than 120,000 jobs and generated billions in economic oomph. So, when it comes to wind energy, it’s not about the color of your state’s politics—it’s about jobs, cheaper energy, and a thriving planet. Our 2025 theme, Our Power, Our Planet, “Our Power, Our Planet,” puts wind energy front and center as the job creator and climate hero it truly is.
2. Wind Kills Whales and Other Wildlife?
While the goal of clean energy is to create a renewable supply of energy, create cheap electricity, jobs, provide national energy independence and help preserve and protect nature, there are concerns that wind turbines may be hurting wildlife. There’s been a steady drumbeat from the present U.S administration about wind turbines killing whales.
There is currently no scientific evidence that offshore wind turbines kill whales. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a U.S. government scientific agency within the Department of Commerce, has found no credible links between wind turbine activity—such as construction noise or operation—and whale deaths or strandings along the U.S. East Coast.
Studies show that the primary human threats to whales remain vessel strikes and entanglement in fishing gear, not wind farms. Whales are also impacted by shipping lanes, oil spills, water pollution and plastic garbage.
Leading experts and organizations emphasize that claims connecting whale mortality to offshore wind development are unsubstantiated by data and often stem from food old-fashioned mistruth.
What is true is that wind turbines do pose a real risk to birds and bats, which can collide with the blades. However, the wind energy industry and researchers have developed and are implementing a range of measures to protect wildlife and minimize impacts.
During planning, wind farms carefully choose locations to avoid key bird nesting sites, migration corridors, and areas with high prey populations. Construction activities are scheduled to avoid sensitive breeding seasons. Once operational, wind farms continuously monitor wildlife activity using technologies such as thermal and radar cameras to detect birds and bats in the area.
When animals are detected nearby, turbines can be slowed or even temporarily shut down—a process called “curtailment”—to prevent collisions. Painting some blades black has also been shown to improve blade visibility and help birds avoid crashes.
Compared with other threats to bird populations such as collisions with buildings and predation by cats, bird fatalities from wind turbines represent a small fraction. Ongoing monitoring and adaptive management, combined with emerging technologies like deterrents and detection systems, are reducing risks further.
3. Wind is Expensive?
Installing a wind turbine isn’t cheap. For a typical commercial turbine, you’re looking at anywhere between $2.6 and $4 million upfront, with bigger turbines costing even more. That usually breaks down to about $1.3 million per megawatt (MW) of power, and trust me, these beasts pack 2 to 3 MW each—more juice than your average home will ever guzzle.
Fossil fuels might seem cheaper at first glance, thanks to decades of well-oiled infrastructure and government subsidies, plus that endless supply of “free” dirt under the ground. But when you start adding in the hidden costs—think polluted air, health bills, and climate chaos—wind energy wins the long game as the more wallet-friendly choice.
And here’s the kicker: wind power isn’t just holding steady, it’s getting cheaper faster than a breeze in the spring. New turbines can now churn out electricity for as low as $79 to $129 per megawatt-hour, giving fossil fuels a run for their money. Between 2010 and 2021, the cost of onshore wind dropped a jaw-dropping 68%, flipping the script from nearly double the price of fossil fuels to about half as much.
So sure, the sticker shock at first may make you do a double-take, but in the grand energy showdown—wind’s got some serious staying power.
4. Wind Takes up Land?
The topic of how much space wind turbines need often raises eyebrows—and understandably so. These tall towers require their personal bubble to operate efficiently, with turbines spaced up to 4,000 feet apart (that’s about three-quarters of a mile, or roughly the length of 13 football fields lined up end to end).
But here’s the twist: unlike smokestack-heavy power plants that hog every inch of their real estate, wind farms are more like polite neighbors. The land around the turbines remains open and multipurpose—farmers happily plant crops or graze livestock between the giant fans, collecting a second income from the breezy bonus.
And if you think wind energy is just about landlocked giants hogging space, think again. Offshore wind farms are booming, expanding America’s clean energy footprint out to sea. These projects don’t compete for your backyard lawn but instead tap the vast marine ‘real estate.’ In fact, offshore wind capacity in the U.S. jumped a whopping 53% between 2023 and 2024 alone.
So yes, wind turbines need their space, but that space isn’t wasted—it’s working double time for both energy and agriculture, and increasingly, the open ocean is joining the party.
5. Wind is Inefficient As an Energy Source?
It’s true—wind doesn’t blow 24/7, which leads some to write off wind energy as intermittent or inefficient. But here’s the secret: wind turbines don’t need a hurricane to work. Their “cut-in speed,” or the breeze that gets the blades spinning, is typically just a gentle 6 to 9 miles per hour—think light jacket weather, not a tornado warning.
Now here’s where it gets fun: each time the wind speed doubles, the power output doesn’t just double—it multiplies by eight. So a boost from a gentle breeze to a stronger gust can supercharge your turbine’s electricity production. Of course, when winds get too wild—above a threshold called the “cut-out speed”—the turbine knows when to take a breather and safely shut down.
Even if the wind occasionally takes a break, wind energy pairs beautifully with solar and hydropower. Store the surplus juice in batteries during calm or nighttime hours, and pull from that reservoir when demand spikes. It’s teamwork that keeps the lights on, come rain, shine, or calm breeze.
How to Support Wind Power
Though no process of energy production is completely perfect, wind energy is clearly a form of renewable energy we should be embracing. Here are some ways that you can add your voice to the pro wind and renewable energy debate.
First, you can support wind and other forms of renewable energy through EARTHDAY.ORG’s 2025 theme Our Power, Our Planet, a call for renewable energy to be tripled globally by 2030.
You can also check out some EARTHDAY.ORG quizzes like our Renewable Energy Quiz to test your knowledge on wind and other forms of renewable energy so you can easily spot misconceptions regarding these topics in the future.
You also have the power (and energy!) to make a difference to support the planet’s health in other ways. Right now the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to protect us from greenhouse gases is under attack from the EPOA itself. LEt them know you care and want to safeguard the EPA’s power, write them HERE.
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