• Environmentally and economically sound and free from the increasing cost of fossil fuels, wind has a lot to offer Canadians. Wind farms can be built quickly – faster than many other types of power plants – and can meet our growing need for electricity in cities, towns and rural areas. With wind energy, the cost of electricity is predictable because there are no escalating fuel costs. Investing in wind also helps us offset our use of other precious resources. That’s why wind energy is a choice for today and tomorrow.

• Wind projects have been shown to generate tourism for local communities. Some wind farms get upwards of 60,000 visits a year and the benefits of even drawing a fraction of that amount of visitors to a community can be felt by many local businesses including shops, restaurants, hotels, motels, and others.

• Wind energy is compatible with other land uses such as farming and can serve as a boost for rural economic development. Wind energy creates alternative revenues for farmers who lease their land.

• Wind energy does not produce any harmful waterborne emissions, or toxic solid wastes. Wind energy offsets the emissions of other energy sources, thus reducing our contribution to global climate change.

• Wind energy is one of the most economical sources of new large-scale electricity generation. Wind energy is becoming even more economic to produce as economies of scale are reached and as electricity prices increase.

• Using wind to produce enough power for over 200 homes (2,000,000 kWh annually) of electricity instead of burning coal will leave 900,000 kilograms of coal in the ground and reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions by 2,000 tonnes. This has the same positive impact as taking 417 cars off the road or planting 10,000 trees.

For more information about wind energy, please visit the CanWEA website.