City of DeKalb Citizen’s Environmental Commission held a wind energy symposium last night to discuss building a wind farm in the southwest part of DeKalb county. The farm would consist of multiple windmills that would be connected to generators to create energy. This energy could then be used in homes and businesses in the county, as well as to combat the energy crisis.

“We need more energy due to an increase in population,” said David Goldblum, assistant professor in the Department of Geography. “There are about three million people born per year, and with this comes greater future demand that we can’t meet. I believe we are in a paradigm shift away from fossil fuels to renewable energy.”

The new windmills would also help with the ongoing global warming crisis.

“Wind Energy will remove a lot of carbon from the atmosphere which in turn will help with combatting the global warming problem,” said Lee Schreiner, treasurer of Rockford Urban Ministries and owner of Just Goods, 201 Seventh St. in Rockford, where a wind turbine rests on top of the building. “We have the wind turbine up and we are really happy with the results, we have a great deal of interest.”

Citizens posed questions to the panel regarding noise issues, reduction of property value and the potential deaths of birds in the area after the installation.

“On the second floor of our building [there] are six apartments and none of them have ever complained about noise from the turbines,” Schreiner said.

In regards to property value, it is a personal perception and few studies have been done to show an effect, Goldblum said.

Bird deaths are inevitable when constructing windmills, but plans are in the works to address the issue.

“Only 20 to 40 thousand birds are killed per year due to wind turbines, compared to 190 million killed by automobiles,” Goldblum said. “There are studies that are being conducted to determine if layouts could prevent these deaths.”

Citizens also asked how far behind Europe the United States was in renewable energy.

“Germany has set a goal to be 40 percent dependent on solar energy in the next few decades. The Spanish, Danish and Dutch all plan on wanting to be almost completely off of fossil fuels,” Goldblum said. “When Germany decided to increase their solar electricity by 40 percent, a majority of United States’ companies transferred to Europe because the market is not developing here.”

One local resident in attendance believes the benefits outweigh the costs.

“Wind energy is an absolute must,” said Stillman Valley resident Mark Anderson. “It’s now or never and if you care at all about your children or the environment, then we need to do this.”