Electricity generated by the wind cost 30 cents per kWh in 1975, but now costs less than five cents per kWh. In comparison, new coal plants produce electricity at four cents per kWh. In the 1970s and 1980s, oil shocks and shortages pushed the development of alternative energy sources. In the 1990s, the push may come from something else, a renewed concern for the earth's environment. Wind energy is clean.
Wind machines produce no air or water pollution because no fuel is burned to generate electricity.
The only environmental drawbacks to wind energy may be a wind plant's effect on bird populations and its visual impact on the surrounding landscape.