Honors Program Theses

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Honors Program Thesis (UNI Access Only)

First Advisor

Daniel Bumblauskas, Honors Thesis Advisor, Management

Keywords

Wind power industry--Iowa;

Abstract

The United States has recently made a substantial push towards generating renewable energy. The country is made of both urbanized and rural areas, calling for the rural areas to provide for the urban areas. However, the rural real estate has seen a lot of development in energy generation, in particular wind and solar industries. For us residing in Cedar Falls, Iowa, we have seen numerous wind farms pop up on all sides of the region. This is common sight in Iowa as a whole, however. According to the American Wind Energy Association, Iowa ranks second in the entire country for wind production, trailing the state Texas, who has over four times as many wind turbines as Iowa. While observing these gigantic powerhouses, I noticed that they have erected in groups of several independent structures, like dandelions in a field. With costs in excess of a million dollars to construct just one, I began to wonder what effects came along with turning farm ground into wind farms (Bermel, personal communication). This paper will be looking into some of the effects that wind farms have on country, both economically and environmentally. Having a business mindset, you should only make business decisions that benefit both the business and the stakeholders. From a nation or governmental standpoint, our push towards renewable energy needs to be beneficial for both the citizens, in the form of the economy, as well as the environment. This study evolved to answer the research question as to whether wind energy is, in fact, beneficial to our country and is not just to cast a positive political illusion to the world.

Year of Submission

2019

Department

Department of Management

University Honors Designation

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the designation University Honors

Date Original

5-2019

Object Description

1 PDF file (27 pages)

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

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