Montcalm Wind Supporter Social Media Kit

As we continue to build community support for Montcalm Wind, we want to give project supporters resources to share on Facebook and other social media channels why wind power is important to them and to their community.

To help you do that, we've created a set of graphics and posts that can be easily downloaded and copy/pasted so that you can better convey your support for the economic and community benefits wind energy will bring Montcalm County.

Drag the graphic above that speaks to you most to your desktop to download it (or right click and choose "Save image as..."), then highlight and press Control + C on Windows (Command + C on Macs) to copy your favorite of the below post options. From there, upload your graphic and paste your post in Facebook to share with your friends—or feel free to rewrite in your words.

As a resident of Montcalm County, the future of our community is important to me. Opportunities to secure our economic future don’t come along too often, and Montcalm Wind is a chance to power better communities throughout Montcalm County. #PoweringBetter

Wind energy and agriculture are a perfect fit. Montcalm Wind will power better farms by creating a weather-proof and drought-proof source of income for family farms and they'll invest that money back into our community. #PoweringBetter

By paying property taxes into local road millages, and improving and upgrading local roads prior to construction, Montcalm Wind will help improve transportation infrastructure throughout our community. #PoweringBetter

Wind farms power better schools by providing tax revenue to local and intermediate school district funds that can improve special education, repair and upgrade school buildings, invest in new technology, and improve educational outcomes for our students. #PoweringBetter

Answers for commonly-posted Facebook comments

There’s a lot of misinformation about wind energy and wind turbines. We do our best to combat it by presenting factual, researched information; below are answers to some of the questions we most commonly run into:

Wind Turbines Aren’t Recyclable

• This is something on which the industry is collectively working towards a solution.
• GE recently announced the first recycling program in the U.S.
• While blade recycling has historically been a challenge, recycling solutions have been ramping up and decommissioned blades represent a tiny fraction of annual waste in the U.S. https://cleantechnica.com/2020/12/09/ge-renewable-energy-partners-veolia-na-wind-turbine-blade-recycling/

How Tall Are the Wind Turbines?

• We are currently in the process of determining how to maximize the amount of clean energy produced by Montcalm Wind while keeping the project footprint to a minimum. Much of this is dependent on the size and nameplate capacity of the wind turbine we choose.
• While we don't have a particular turbine height range that we can provide at this time, we will update the community via our website and this page once we have made a decision.

Wind Turbines Kill A Lot of Birds

• Modern wind farms actually account for far fewer bird fatalities than buildings, communication towers, vehicles, and even the common household cat. In fact, wind turbines account for only a small fraction, about .01%, of all human-related bird deaths.
• A recent study which revealed that "almost no birds die in collisions with wind turbine blades". https://www.windpowermonthly.com/article/1697603/almost-no-birds-die-collisions-wind-turbine-blades-research-finds

Our Property Values Will Go Down As A Result Of This Wind Farm

• Despite claims from wind energy opponents, there is no evidence that wind energy development negatively impacts property values.

Studies conducted on the topic by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in 2013 and again in 2014 analyzed a total of over 170,000 home sales and found “no statistical evidence that operating turbines had any measurable impact on home sales prices.” https://emp.lbl.gov/sites/all/files/lbnl-6362e.pdf

Waste Produced By Montcalm Will Offset Environmental Benefits

• Turbines offset the energy it takes to build, operate, and decommission them after around 6-8 months of operations. That leaves nearly 30 years of net-positive energy generation.

We’ll Be Stuck With Rusting Turbines After The Contract Ends

• Local ordinances require wind projects to submit plans for decommissioning the facility at the project owner’s expense.
• A decommissioning bond is often posted in favor of the county or local jurisdiction and assessed based on the presumed per turbine cost of removal.
• Removal is then the responsibility of the project owner, whether that be the original developer, a utility, or another company that may own and operate the project in the future.
• If something happens to the project owner's finances in the future, that decommissioning bond is already in place to provide the resources to remove the turbines once they are no longer in use.

Wind Energy Is A Hoax, These Turbines Are Extremely Expensive

• The levelized cost of wind energy taking into account subsidies is lower than almost every other form of electricity generation in the United States. https://www.lazard.com/perspective/levelized-cost-of-energy-and-levelized-cost-of-storage-2020/
• It’s important to note that all energy sources in the United States are subsidized, and that oil and gas interests have historically received much larger subsidies than the tax credit wind and solar power currently receive.