Running head: WINDMILLS IN EL PASO, TEXAS 1

Windmills in El Paso, Texas

Alan A. Terrazas

The University of Texas at El Paso

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Abstract

Windmills have great benefits overall. At some point fossil fuels will ran out and to solve this

issue is to begin depending on renewable resources more often, and why not starting locally in

the city of El Paso, Texas. In general renewable energy comes from renewable sources.

Windmills turn around like if it was a fan, and by turning they also turn the rotor which spins a

generator to make electricity. The main topic to this research is to find out if the people from El

Paso like windmills, where would they like them to be located. To do so, engineers from El Paso

were interview and students from the University of Texas at El Paso participate in a survey.

Their answers where compare and analyze with each other. As a result, the city can benefit from

windmills economically and with air pollution if the city would invest more on windmills and in

other green energy.

Keywords: Windmills, fossil fuels, renewable resources, green energy.

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Windmills in El Paso, Texas

Renewable resources have been around for centuries. Before the mid 1800s, renewable

resources were the only form of energy. First, the sun providing light and making fire and wind

and water were used for wind/water mills and sailing (Evans, n.d.). After the mid 1800s, fossil

fuels took over the energy industry. However, people started to notice that fossil fuels were not

going to last forever, so people started to worry. That is when new ideas for alternative energy

sources came up and so green energy emerge.

Green energy is energy that is being produced by natural resources. Today the most

popular green energy sources are solar and wind power. This paper will especially focus on wind

power and what would people in El Paso, Texas think about it. As of now, the city El Paso only

has 13 windmills located by Gateway and Airway along the I-10 (Figure 1). The windmills are a

piece of art, which is meant to welcome visitors and residents, promote green energy, and

symbolize the growth of El Paso (Color Kinetics, n.d.).

Figure 1: night time vision of El Paso’s windmills located by gateway and airway

along the I-10. Retrieve from http://www.shawnwhisenant.com/el-paso-lighting_S/101234/el-

paso-lighting-f77-on-wow-image-collection-with-el-paso-lighting/ uploaded by: Ophelia

WINDMILLS IN EL PASO, TEXAS 4

The purpose of this research is to see what El Pasoans think about windmills and to see if

building more windmills is a good idea. The following questions were asked to participants that

have been living in El Paso.

• Where is a good place to build windmills in El Paso?

• How would windmills affect El Paso’s economy?

• What other benefits do windmills provide?

• Would building more windmills in El Paso, be a good idea?

This participants are from the RWS 1302 class at the University of Texas at El Paso

(UTEP). Their responses will be compared and analyzed with the city’s news, other reliable

sources and engineers: Berry Benedict, Ph.D. in civil engineering and professor at UTEP, and

Leticia Vasquez, mechanical engineer at Prod Design Industrial Automation & Controls.

Where is a good place to build windmills in El Paso?

For windmills to be the most productive, there must be some conditions in the

environment. Clara Darvill, 2018 said, “The best places for wind farms are in coastal areas, at the

tops of rounded hills, open plains and gaps in mountains - places where the wind is strong and

reliable” El Paso has an altitude of 3,740 feet above sea level and it is considered as a cold

desert, and throughout the year it provides high winds. NWS meteorologist, Lance Tripoli said,

"Because of the presence of the mountain, winds will come down and will accelerate. It doesn't

matter where you are in the world, if you live near a mountain, large amount of winds flowing

right across the mountain, then the acceleration and the enhancement to the wind gusts will be

the most" (Claster, 2016). Several windfarms are located in Texas because Texas has fantastic

wind incentives and large plain places.

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Most participants suggested that the best location for windmills will be in; El Paso’s

downtown and out of the city’s limit (Figure 2). Professor Benedict said “Technically open areas

its suddenly something worth locating. Yeah because if we hardly put windmills in downtown,

where there are a lot of people around and there is also concerns about things like birds or other

kind of things that might be damage.” This clearly states that windmills should not be located in

downtown, because people, pigeons and things like that could damage the windmills. Although

out of the city’s limit there is a large space for windmills to generate large amounts of energy,

since it haves high winds.

Figure 2: Participant’s response to

what location would they like to see the

windmills in El Paso, Texas

According to the participants and Ph.D. Benedict, both suggested that the best location

for windmills is out of the city where there is a large open space. If windmills are constructed in

downtown, damages to the windmills are likely to happen. However, the city does not have to

worry about traffic and small businesses going broke. The open space will lead to a cheaper cost

for maintenance and will let windmills catch more winds for energy production.

How would windmills affect El Paso’s economy?

In general renewable energy is producing energy out of renewable resources. Not only it

produces energy but they also creates new job opportunities. Like the windmills from I-10 that it
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welcomes tourist (Figure 1), the windmills can also attract tourists such as in Palm Springs,

California. The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) article “Renewable Electricity Standards

Deliver Economic Benefits (2013)” says that, “renewable energy provides a range of economic

benefits” (Union of Concerned Scientists, 2013).

Windmills have economic benefits such as: creating full-time jobs, investment,

outperforming fossil fuels, and projects about green energy that have to pay taxes for the

property that help supports states and local communities (Union of Concerned Scientists, 2013).

Also tourism increases our economy by creating new jobs, investing on small businesses,

traveling and of course spending money (U.S. Travel Association, 2017). So if windmills were to

be built in El Paso, jobs will be created and people from other places will come to work.

“In order for windmills to create a positive effect in the economy they have to generate

more power than what the people demand” said Ph.D. Benedict. But for windmills to cause a

positive impact to El Paso’s economy, the money has to be spent within the city. “It should be a

positive increase on the economy if it locally manned and maintained as well as if the cost

benefits are shared with the community” Leticia Vasquez said. These two options need to happen

before tourists come to El Paso, and then really boost El Paso’s income.

What other benefits do windmills provide?

There are many other benefits that windmills support. Not only El Paso can benefit from

windmills by boosting the economy but also they are an alternative source of energy, they help

out with pollution and global warming. This are some ideas that can make El Paso grow and help

the Earth. To this conditions, El Paso can set an example to other cities across the world.

Fossil fuels are not going to last forever, to solve this problem, renewable energy is

alternative source of energy. As up today, renewable energy are being a competition to fossil
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fuels by providing cheaper price per kilowatt hour. Energy from renewable resources can already

be stored on batteries, therefore the energy can be used to charge cars, electronics or use when it

is cloudy or not windy. If the city pushes for green energy, people will eventually turn to green

energy as well.

Windmills help with pollution and global warming “Wind turbines do not release

emissions that can pollute the air or water (with rare exceptions), and they do not require water

for cooling. Wind turbines may also reduce the amount of electricity generation from fossil fuels,

which results in lower total air pollution and carbon dioxide emissions” said eia (U.S. Energy

Information Administration, 2017). Shown in figure 3 the most participants agree that windmills

do have a positive impact fighting global warming.

“Wind energy doesn't pollute the air like power plants that rely on combustion of fossil

fuels, such as coal or natural gas, which emit particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, and

sulfur dioxide—causing human health problems and economic damages. Wind turbines

don't produce atmospheric emissions that cause acid rain, smog, or greenhouse gases.”

- Office of efficiency & renewable energy (n.d.)

This is how windmills help the Earth compared to fossil fuels when being burned up, they

cause air pollution and increase the greenhouse effect. To support this argument Cleaner and

greener (n.d.) said, “Most of this air pollution we cause results from the burning of fossil fuels,

such as coal, oil, natural gas, and gasoline.”

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Figure 3: 87.5 % of the participants

agree on windmills helping with

global warming.

As windmills produce energy, they help with pollution and global warming. For the long

run, El Paso can shift from fossil fuels to depend less on them. Also, using the energy from

renewable resources will lead a higher income to the city and cooler climate overall.

Would building more windmills in El Paso, be a good idea?

As seen from Figure 1 these are the only windmills provided by the city. According to

Eddie Gutierrez, El Paso Electric spokesman, "It really is a difficult challenge here. It's not

consistent wind. It's not constant wind. I think that's really the challenge” (Claster, 2016).

Although the wind from El Paso seems not to favor the windmills, participants still think they are

good to the city.

Participants like the idea of windmills being built in the city (Figure 4). Including Ms.

Vasquez, “I would think that they would be a great idea so long as the benefits are shared with

the community and so long as the analysis is done correctly and not haphazardly set up…

Renewable resources are all positive, nevertheless long-term goals are always essential to

anything that will affect the community.” The responses from the participants support this

argument that it is a good idea to build windmills in El Paso.

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Figure 4: Responds from

the participants for

windmills being built in

El Paso.

Conclusion

From the data collected through this research, it is concluded that people from El Paso

would like for the city to build more windmills and they would do a positive effect to the city.

The best location in El Paso for windmills is a large space, out of the city limits where is isolated

for cheaper maintenance. The city can benefit from windmills in different ways such as; a tourist

attraction, economically, energy efficient, cleaner air.

The limitations to this research are that a small amount of people participated in the

survey. Although the people being interview were engineers, their specialty was not in windmills

nor renewable resources. Future research would be make a survey more general for a larger

amount of people to participate, also ask the El Paso Electric company, actual engineers in green

energy. For last to make an analysis on different locations around El Paso, to figure out where

would be the best place for windmills in order for them to be more productive.
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References

Clara, D. (2018, August 7). Energy Resources: Wind power. Retrieved from

http://www.darvill.clara.net/altenerg/wind.htm

Claster, A. (2016, February 23). El Paso not benefiting from renewable wind energy during high

wind advisory. Retrieved from https://cbs4local.com/news/local/el-paso-not-benefiting-

from-renewable-wind-energy-during-high-wind-advisory

Cleaner and greener. (n.d.). Air Pollution. Retrieved from

http://www.cleanerandgreener.org/resources/air-pollution.html

Evans, M. (n.d.). Renewable Energy. Retrieved from

http://www.earthtimes.org/encyclopaedia/environmental-issues/renewable-energy/Last

Ophelia. (2018, Febuary 20). El Paso Lighting F77 On Wow Image Collection with El Paso

Lighting [Photograph found in Gallery Of El Paso Lighting]. Retrieved from

http://www.shawnwhisenant.com/el-paso-lighting_S/101234/el-paso-lighting-f77-on-

wow-image-collection-with-el-paso-lighting/

Philips Color Kinetics. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.colorkinetics.com/showcase/installs/El-

Paso-Airway/

Office of Efficiency & Renewable Energy. (n.d.). Advantages and Challenges of Wind Energy.

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energy

Union of Concerned Scientists. (2013, May). How Renewable Electricity Standards Deliver

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U.S. Energy Information Administration. (2017, December 11). Wind Energy and the

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U.S. Travel Association. (2017, January). The Power of Travel Promotion (Rep.). Retrieved from

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