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MORALITY, SPACE, AND THE POWER OF
WIND-ENERGY LANDSCAPES
MARTIN J. PASQUALETTI
ABSTRACT. Most of us have not known-or cared-where our electricity comes from. Our
attitude is changing,however,as we turn toward wind energy,now the fastest-growingre-
newable energyresourcein the world. Becausewe cannot extractand transportthe raw en-
ergy of the wind, reaping its many environmentalbenefits requiresthat we cope with the
landscapepresenceof its developmentwhereverit occurs.Sometimesthis interfereswith the
value of open space,and sometimes it may be close to subdivisions.It is the immobility and
veryvisibilityof wind powerthat makesits presenceunavoidable.In that regardit cannot be
hidden underground,stored in tanks, or moved by trains. It is an energy resourcethat re-
minds us that our electricitycomes from somewhere.The more we wish to tap the power of
the wind, the less we will be able to avoid the responsibilitiesthat our demand for energy
brings.This necessarybargain,firstevident nearPalmSprings,California,is now being expe-
rienced whereverwind power is being developed. Keywords:California,energy,landscape,
morality,wind.
Owing to the sheer scale of today's urban places, escaping the congestion that has
become their signature feature can be difficult. Reaching the solace of open spaces
commonly requires a long journey, and sometimes the trip is punctuated by the
unexpected. Heading east from Los Angeles on Interstate 10, for example, you
drive as much as 150 kilometers before traffic thins. But just when you start to
relax your grip on the steering wheel, you sense a strong and even disconcerting
buffeting. As you struggle for control, blasts of sand etch your windshield, ob-
scuring your vision. Once you begin to exit this gauntlet, chaotic apparitions ap-
pear out of the clouds of beige dust: thousands of glinting, whirling machines
bordering the highway and crowning every visible ridge, at highway speeds a seem-
ing reversal of Don Quixote's famous confrontation. As if passing into a new di-
mension, you have entered a fascinating and challenging modern world, that of
wind power (Figure i).
This route has taken you through San Gorgonio Pass, a low, topographic "pinch
point" that is vital as a corridor for aqueducts, power lines, railroads, and highways,
whose geographical and economic importance is not new (Figure 2). Long before
San Gorgonio Pass was trenched and scraped and paved by modern society, Native
Americans used it as the most convenient travel route between the cool Southern
California coast and the searing Colorado Desert. During their treks they became
acquainted with the strong winds and their invisible irritations. Today the wind is
even more obvious because thousands of turbines march across the entire width of
the pass and on up the hillsides, becoming the dominant feature. So striking is this
scene that it is used as a backdrop for advertisements, music videos, and motion
pictures. It has become America's most famous landscape of power.
&Ai- 4 ; w - - -
47 j }171 -
FIG. 1-Phalanxes of wind turbines obscure the view of Mount San Gorgonio, California,in the
winter of 1997.(Photographcourtesyof Paul Gipe)
The pass doubles as the stage for a moralityplay,pitting vocal public support
for renewable energy against the visible realities such advocacy can produce. It
prompts questions:Which is it going to be, fossil/nuclearfuels and their conse-
quences, or renewableresourcesand theircosts?Are the advocatesof wind energy
willing to reaffirmtheir backing,or havethe landscapesthat wind power produces
given them second thoughts?These questions havebecome relevantin the United
Statesas the public becomes spoiled by a widening physicaldistancebetween con-
sumers and their energy sources.The wider the gap, the greaterthe effect that dis-
tance has had on bufferingconsumersfrom the environmentalcosts of energy.The
recentrise of wind power is shrinkingthat distanceonce again,and this contraction
is remindingus afreshof the responsibilitieswe have for the energywe use.
The San Gorgonio Pass experienceis not unique. Globally,the generatingca-
pacity of commercialwind turbines now exceeds14,000 megawatts(MW) (Figure
3), and it is increasingmore rapidlythan any otherrenewableenergyresource.Vari-
ous forms and strataof governmentsupporthaveaidedthis expansion,but its prin-
cipal attractionis wind power's inherent environmentalattributes.Producingno
global warming,wind power floods no canyons,demands no water,contaminates
no soil, and leaves no permanent and dangerouswaste. Wind generatorscan be
installed and removed quickly;they are well suited to isolated, off-grid locations;
and the cost of the electricitythey produceis now comparablewith that from con-
ventional sources.In short, wind power is too good to ignore.
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FIG. 2-View of San Gorgonio Pass from Edom Hill, California, looking west, in the winter of 1995.
The white objects in the background are wind turbines. Tamarisk trees that shield railroad tracks
from blowing sand form the horizontal dark streak in the center. (Photograph by the author)
Despite the benefitsof wind power and even its acceptancein ruralcommuni-
ties where the transcontinentalpower grid is a distant and uneconomic thought,
the more vocal public reactionis one of hesitation and resistanceto the distinctive
landscape signature of wind power (Thayer 1994; Nielsen 1996; Righter 1996; Elliott
1997).As I suggest in more detail below, such landscape imprints can be softened
and possibly even put to good use. First,however,we need to appreciatemore fully
that the degree of success that wind power achieves will depend on how well we
understandand acceptthe fundamentalspatialcosts it imposes.
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When the primaryfuel of Europewas wood, the consequencesof its use were im-
mediateand local.Not only did pollution shroudcitieswhereverhouseholdsburned
it, but the foreststhat once defined the landscapeswere felled fasterthan they re-
grew and were soon replacedby grass. The more the expansive woodlands were
whittled away,the more the searchfor substitutefuels sharpened.It was at this his-
torical confluence of technology and need that the shift to "kingcoal"began. The
emergence of coal as a substitute for wood produced substantialchanges in the
spatial arrangementof energy impacts. As coal rose to prominence, there was a
changefrom the ratheruniform,distributedimpactsof the ubiquitoususe of wood
to the nodal, intensifiedimpactsof coal, the use of which was concentratedin rela-
tively few places.
A case study of the change in the spatial characterof impacts comes from the
transport of coal to London from the Midlands and northeasternregions of En-
gland, a practice that persistedfor centuries.Although coal mining reshapedthe
countrysideeverywhere,people in nearbycitiesbreathedfew of the sulfurousfumes
that resultedfrom its use becausevirtuallyall of the coal was sent south. In contrast,
Londonerssufferednothing of the landscapedevastationor the personalprivations
common in the mining lands of the northeast.Neitherplace experiencedthe inten-
sity of the other'sfate. This was a change in a centuries-oldpattern,a result of the
transition from low-value, widely availableresourcessuch as wood to a spatially
more concentratedresourcesuch as coal.
Other changesin impactfollowedwhereverradicallynew fuels gainedpopular-
ity.As oil was changingthe energyindustryin the firsthalf of the twentiethcentury,
supply chains and impacts spatiallystretchedout, and the aggregateimpact, sub-
stantial and differentas it was, became concentratedin more widely spaced loca-
tions. Oil was easier and less expensiveto transportlong distancesbecause it was
abundant in fewer places than was coal. In the last third of the twentieth century
386 THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW
Wind-Power Potential
FIG. 5-Wind electric potential as a percentage of total electricity consumption in the contigu-
ous United States in 1990. Specifications:wind resources greaterthan class 4 at 30 meters (that is,
320 W/m2), 30-meter hub height, loD x 5D spacing, 25 percent efficiency,25 percent losses. Source:
Elliott and Schwartz1993.(Adapted by BarbaraTrapido-Lurie)
We havebeen using wind from prehistorictimes, but its applicationfor the genera-
tion of commercialelectricityis recent,having begun in earnest only in the mid-
198os in three areas of California,including San Gorgonio Pass.Attractedby the
rising cost of fossil fuel, lulled by yearsof public support for renewableenergy,and
thinking that the windsweptland of the pass had no public value, wind-powerde-
velopersexpectedpublic encouragement,if not outright praise,for their initiative.
Instead,they encounteredstrong disapproval,especiallyfrom people living in the
nearbyresortcity of Palm Springs.
Soon afterthe wind turbineswere installed,the city claimed that they were in-
dustrializingand therebydesecratingthe principalgatewayto the resorts.Worried
PalmSpringsleadersdirectedthat a suitbe filedagainstthe managersof the land-the
U.S. Departmentof the Interior'sBureauof LandManagementand the County of
Riverside-claimingthat the two bureaucracieshad failedto follow properenviron-
mental procedureswhen they permittedthe public land in the pass to be developed
for wind power.Many local residentsthought-correctly-that the turbines rarely
worked and that the economic incentives designed to stimulatewind power also
had tax advantages.At a minimum, city leaders asserted,any electricitythat was
generatedwas not worth the landscapechangesthe wind turbines produced.And,
of course,the city was not receivingany directbenefit.
Although wind-power developments have been blamed for everything from bad
television reception to bird deaths, it is the imprimatur of wind generators on
the land that figures most prominently in the public consciousness. One group
wants to use the land for the generation of electricity; another group wants it
for something else, possibly just for its scenery. Land-use competition is the
core argument for those who consider wind power the rotten apple on the alter-
native energy tree.
WIND-POWER LANDSCAPES 391
FIG. 6-Wind energy in Kappel, Denmark, illustrating how symmetry, placement, and attention to
existing landforms can work together to reduce the objectionable clutter that has characterized other
wind developments. These twenty-four turbines, commissioned in August 199o, have a capacity of 9.6
MW. (Photograph courtesy of Jens Bygholm)
The first two steps along the path to a fresherfruit seem clear.First,the wind-
power industry must incorporateall reasonabletechnical improvementsto miti-
gate impacts and assuage public unrest. Some progress has been made in these
respects:Equipment is now more efficient, more powerful, increasinglyaerody-
namic, quieter,safer,and more reliable.This means that fewerturbines are needed
to generatean equal amount of electricity.Wind-powerdevelopmentsalso tend to
glint and reflectless noticeably,to look less cluttered,and to be more uniform in
design and arrangement.All of these improvements have reduced the targets of
public objection, even those that focus expresslyon wind-turbinevisibility.
Second, industry must strive to intelligently and carefully integrate turbines
within individuallandscapesin which they work.Severalgenericstepscan be taken,
includingattentionto scale,symmetryof design, carefulroad constructionand site
preparation,and equipment maintenance.Such care can yield positive results, as
the Danes-long pioneersin wind-powertechnology-have demonstrated(Nielsen
1996) (Figure 6).
No matter how much we do to reduce the impact of wind turbines on land-
scapes,nothing can renderthem invisible.The most sensibleremainingstep, then,
is to embracewind'svisibilitynot as a problembut as an asset.If one concedes that
the essentialfirststepin communicationis attractinginitialaudienceattention,wind's
392 THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW
Civilizationgrewup with wind power.It was used to move boats alongthe Nile River
5,000 yearsago and to pump waterin Chinaseveralcenturiesbeforethe beginningof
the Christianera.Forbetteror for worse,Europeanexplorationcould not have oc-
curredwithout it. Wearefamiliarwith wind power,so it holds none of the mysteryof
fission or fusion or even standardfossil-fueledpower generation.Its total environ-
mental impacts are approximatedby its landscapeexpression.Most important,its
physicalpresenceremindsus that our supplyof electricityhas environmentalcosts,
regardlessof whetherthey arenearbyor too distantor camouflagedto see.
If wind energyis to expand, so too will wind-energylandscapesand the atten-
tion paid to them by the public. If developersare to cultivatethe promise of wind
power, they should not intrude on favored (or even conspicuous) landscapes,re-
gardlessof the technical temptations these spots may offer. Had this been an ac-
cepted admonition twentyyearsago,the potential of the San Gorgonio Passmight
havecarriedwith it the threatof publicbacklashsufficientto cause more farsighted
developersto hesitate.This argues for a more carefulmelding of land use, scenic
values,public opinion, and environmentalregulationswith the technicalconsider-
ations of each site.
The benefits of wind energy are as apparentas are the challengesof the rapid
and dramaticlandscapechangesthat wind power creates.A balancebetween costs
WIND-POWER LANDSCAPES 393
NOTES
1. In FooteCreekRim,Wyoming,for example,opponentsaskedwhy U.S.Windpower-the original
developer-did not simply move to a similartopographicalarea,apparentlynot graspingthe issue of
the cube law for wind and the need to place plants at the windiest sites. (My thanks to Tom Grayfor
this example.)
2. The mission statementof the Glen CanyonInstitutereads:"TheGlen Canyon Institute'smis-
sion is to provide leadershipin re-establishingthe free flow of the Colorado Riverthrough a restored
Glen Canyon"[http://www.glencanyon.org].
3. The use of the shallow North Sea by severalwind developers is an example of one way to
increaseseparation,to provideunobstructedaccessto the wind, and to makewind-power generation
less visible to the public.
4. That is, those areasat class4 and above areconsideredsuitablefor development.Class4 winds
can annuallyproduce 11.65million kWh/km2.Areaswith class4 winds and above total approximately
460,000 km2,or about 6 percentof the total land areain the contiguous United States.The potential
averagegenerationfrom areaswith class 4 (6 m/sec) and higher,which are suitablefor development
using advancedwind-turbinetechnology,is estimatedat 500,000 MW. If future-generationtechnol-
ogy is utilizedto takeadvantageof areaswith wind resourcesof class3 and higher,then the amount of
windy land availableis more than 1,ooo,oookm2,or almost 14percentof the land areain the contigu-
ous United States.A group of twelve states in the midsection of the nation has enough wind-energy
potential to produce nearlyfour times the amount of electricityconsumed by the entire country in
1990 (Elliott and Schwartz 1993).
5. Population density in the United Kingdom (240/km2)is nine times greaterthan that in the
United States (27/km2).
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Economist. 1994. The Economist, 22 January.
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394 THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW