111 MW Twilight Wind Farm, Colorado
The proposed 111 MW Twilight wind farm will be located on farm land in Elbert County, Colorado. We are currently working on site development activities.
The Twilight wind farm would provide the average energy supply for about 84,000 homes in Colorado.
Climate and Environmental Benefits. The renewable energy produced by wind power is clean and non-polluting (i.e., no emissions). As compared with the energy produced by a coal-fired power plant, the environmental attributes and air emissions savings benefits of this 111 MW wind farm are estimated as follows:
● reduces equivalent coal consumption and mining of 40,000 tons per year
● equivalent reduced natural gas consumption of 987,000,000 cubic feet per year
● reduces dependence on imported oil, saving the consumption of 174,000 barrels per year
● reduced water pollution/consumption of 145,000,000 gallons per year
● equivalent avoided emission of 634,000,000 lbs of CO2 per year, which reduces the impacts of global warming and climate change
● equivalent to planting about 23,000,000 trees (or a 105,000 acre forest), because trees naturally absorb CO2
The emissions/pollution SAVED (or prevented) during the Twilight wind project’s life of 20 years — over 12.8 billion pounds of NOx, SOx, PM, and CO2 — would cover the entire City of Denver, Colorado (153 square miles) approximately 73 feet deep! Wow! For more information about the environmental benefits of wind power, please visit our Health and Climate Benefits of Wind Power page.
Ahhh, breathe the clean, natural air from the Twilight wind farm…
Economic Benefits. Wind power is a renewable energy resource that would lessen the region's dependence on fossil fuels. The “fuel” for this energy resource — the wind — is natural, abundant, and free/renewable, which would reduce the impact of fossil fuel price volatility on local utilities and their customers.
This Project would be a boost to Colorado's economy through local construction jobs and expenditures on materials, tools, supplies, and equipment purchases, as well as through the creation of long-term employment. The local economic benefits (direct and indirect) from this wind project over 20 years is estimated to be roughly $230 million, including property taxes, payroll from high-skilled jobs, land owner/farmer land leases, 
sales taxes, business taxes, various services purchased from local retailers, etc. (both during initial construction, plus continuing services for operation and maintenance).
Social and Health Savings. Further, the hidden economic burdens placed on society from air pollution created by coal and gas-fired power generation is huge — the costs to “medicate” and “repair” our society, based upon the various air pollution values over 20 years mentioned above, is roughly estimated at over $350 million, which comprises health care and disease costs, plus damage to crops, livestock, property, climate, etc., as well as, impacts to public services. Therefore, the clean, renewable power from this wind farm would save our society roughly $350 million over 20 years in health and societal costs.
Birds/ Wildlife Benefits. Not only does the use of clean, natural wind power save human lives, it also saves the lives of birds and other wildlife. Birds are far more sensitive to air pollution than humans due to the thinness of
the bird's lung's air-sac gas-exchange tissue, roughly half of the thickness of mammals, plus the large amounts of oxygen required for flight. Therefore, birds are far more sensitive to airborne particulates and pollution. In addition, fossil-fired power plants cause significant bird fatalities not only from air pollution, but from mining, destruction of forests, acid rain which causes acidification of soil and lakes/rivers, ingesting toxic mercury, collisions with power plant smokestacks and structures, climate change which wreaks havoc on migration routes and degrades habitats, etc. However, birds also collide to a lesser extent with wind turbines. Therefore, considering the entirety of the impacts, this wind farm will save an estimated net 29,000 birds over 20 years, as well as other wildlife, by displacing fossil-fired power (Sovacool, 2009).
For more information about the health, climate, and economic benefits of wind power, please visit our Health and Climate Benefits of Wind Power page.
All values contained herein are preliminary and approximate.
August 2009
