The largest wind power complex (wind farm) in Canada and one of the biggest in the world is located near the coast of St. Lawrence gulf in the beautiful rugged area of the Gaspe region of Quebec.

It’s a picturesque sight as you travel through the Matane area and see 133 wind turbines spaced out on a mountain ridge. You see them for miles – many miles. The power is sold to Hydro-Quebec.

The first time I saw many such wind turbines was a few years ago when I traveled through northern Germany and Denmark. I was impressed then. Germany has 16,000 wind turbines, mostly in the northern part of the country.

Onshore turbine installations in hilly or mountainous regions tend to be on ridgelines generally three kilometres or more inland from the nearest shoreline. This is done to exploit the so-called topographic acceleration. The hill or ridge causes the wind to accelerate as it is forced over it. The additional wind speeds gained in this way make large differences to the amount of energy that is produced. Great attention is paid to the exact positions of the turbines ( a process known as micro-sitting) because a difference of 30 metres can sometimes mean a doubling in output.

Canada has a potential of approximately 30,000 megawatts in developable wind resources, enough to supply 15 per cent of its electrical power.

Wind energy is renewable, non-polluting and sustainable. It requires no fuel to produce, generates no greenhouse gases, toxic waste or radioactive waste. Each megawatt-hour of electricity generated by wind energy represents saving almost one tonne of carbon dioxide emissions released into the atmosphere each year over coal or diesel-fueled electricity.

The only problem – a big one – is that wind energy is very expensive. Extracting one kilowatt/hour of energy from the wind costs four times as much as using fossil fuels.

Some parts of the world have stronger winds than other parts. Normally, the higher the altitude, the stronger the wind.

A wind turbine can only generate limited electricity, so a number of wind turbines can be built in an area to form a wind farm. The "modern" wind turbine or windmill looks much different from the traditional windmills in Holland – the ones you know from pictures. The new wind turbines have a wider span, with three blades. They can’t be too close together otherwise the wind turbines will interfere the airflow and reduce the electricity produced.

Wind turbines can be found both on land and out to sea. In Denmark, near the capital city of Copenhagen, I saw long rows of wind turbines offshore. I saw the turbines close up from the ship we were on as we entered the harbour. I was told that off-shore winds are 20 per cent stronger than on land.

Wind farms are popular in Scandinavian countries. Denmark generates over 20 per cent of its electricity with wind turbines, the highest percentage of any country. In the 1970s, Denmark made a commitment to eventually produce half of the country’s power by wind.

By the end of 2006, Germany had the world’s highest total installed wind power capacity (20,622MW) , said the European Wind Energy Association. Germany was followed by Spain (11,615), USA. (11,603), India (6,270)) Denmark (3,140) China (2,604) Italy (2,123) UK (1,963), Portugal (1,716) France (1,567) the Netherlands (1,560) and Canada (1,459).

Do the blades of the turbines kill migratory birds? On shore and near-shore studies show that the number of birds killed by wind turbines is negligible compared to the number that die as a result of other human activities such as traffic and power lines and high-rise apartments.

Bats, however, are not so lucky.