It’s out with pollutants and in with clean air, as DeKalb County soon may be home to about 76 windmills on 46 farming properties.

At Tuesday’s meeting at the Holmes Student Center, Florida Power and Light representatives discussed the uses and benefits of wind turbines within DeKalb County. The presentation served as an introduction to the county before a proposal to build a windmill farm in DeKalb County is heard at a Dec. 9 meeting.

Renee Kopulos, vice chair for Sierra Club Kishwaukee/Solduc chapter, and member of the committee for the Preservation of Wildlife at NIU, said farmers would see an immediate benefit with wind turbines.

“The farmers of DeKalb would bring in another source of income,” Kopulos said.

Kopulos said the greatest asset globally with wind turbines is how they reduce environmental hazards generally seen within current standard methods of producing energy.

These days, the burning of coal is a primary measure in creating energy, and as a result, creates air pollution and aids in global warming when released as a gas into the atmosphere. Supplying nuclear plants with wind-generated energy also would lessen the dependency of the United States to purchase foreign energy through such purchases as oil and other resources, Kopulos said.

“With wind energy, land isn’t destroyed and you don’t have to mine for it,” Kopulos said.

Kopulos said Commonwealth Edison has been supportive of DeKalb County’s desire to house wind farms, and as a result, have been contracted to buy the energy from farmers.

Kopulos also noted a couple of concerns about windmills, however, completely dispelling them as misconceptions.

“People think windmills kill birds and make a lot of noise,” Kopulos said. “But windmills are only a little more than 200 feet, which would make communication towers more of a hazard [to birds] and the blades don’t turn that fast. Any noise is minimal, and traffic probably is worse.”

Although not everyone is in favor of the windfarm, a farmer from Alta, Iowa, explained to Successful Farming why a windfarm is extremely beneficial and has changed his life.

“I think it’s one of the greatest things that ever happened,” Chuck Goodman said. “It’s good for my pocketbook. It’s good for the environment. And wind is replenishable.”

Kopulos said an additional advantage to having windmills in DeKalb is the pure aesthetic quality it brings.

“Windmills are very romantic in my opinion,” Kopulos said.