Wind Power
Wind power is one of the forms of renewable energy that has been on the rise over the last few years, in fact, it has been the fastest growing energy technology over the last 20 years growing at over 25% per year. It is actually a form of solar energy seeing as winds result because the sun heats the earth unevenly causing cooler dense air to replace warmer, lighter air.
So let’s have a look at the projects that are in progress that are helping to make wind power the fastest growing power source.
Blue = proposed
Green = construction started
Red = proposal has been abandoned
Grey = project complete
Estimated Added Capacity Due to 2008 Projects : 2,060MW
(NOTE: this table is still under construction with projects added daily)
How Does Wind Power Work?
Electricity is generated when wind turns the blades of a wind turbine which converts the kinetic energy that is wind movement into electricity that can either be stored in batteries or used directly. Large quantities of electricity is generated from wind farms which contain multiple wind turbines that are connected into an electricity grid.
Considerations When Creating Power from Wind
In order to create energy from wind, an available, constant flow of wind is required. This means you can’t just plonk a bunch of wind turbines anywhere and expect to create a reliable flow of electricity. However, the distance from the wind farm to the electricity users must be fairly short to reduce the length of transmission lines. The longer the transmission lines, the greater the cost.
Wind flow must also be available at a fairly constant rate. On the surface of it, it would seem that the stronger the wind blows the better it would be and it’s true, stronger winds produce more electricity, but the challenge is to design a wind generator tower robust enough to survive the turbulent conditions created by extremely high winds.
The Case For Wind Power
It’s clean. Once the wind turbines have been manufactured and put in place (which does produce carbon emissions) the operation of the turbines are non-polluting, do not add to global warming and produces no pollution.
The cost is not significantly higher than existing electricity costs sourced from fossil fuels. With anticipated government incentives, the difference in cost will be reduced even more.
Technology is advanced and it has been proven to be an efficient producer of electricity.
It makes a significant difference, e.g. Challicum wind farm in the west of Victoria generates enough energy to power more than 25,000 homes.
Surveys have indicated that wind power is a popular energy technology which suggests that the wider population will be willing to use it.
The Case Against Wind Power
As with just about every new technology you find you get detractors and naysayers. Here is a taste of some of the arguments thrown up against wind power.
Wind turbines ruin the landscape. Of course, this argument loses a bit of momentum when you compare the landscape containing a wind turbine with the ascetics that an open cut cola mine creates.
Wind turbines kill birds.
Wind farms are noisy.
Wind power is unreliable. There will be times when there won’t be consistently strong enough winds to produce the required energy.
Wind farms are at their most cost efficient when wind turbines are located near to the end users.
(Incidentally all of these arguments against wind power are easily and comprehensively revealed as fallacies by Mark Diesendorf in his outstanding book Freenhouse Solutions with Sustainable Energy.)
Cost
Currently wind energy costs around twice as much as energy from coal generation, but the cost of wind power is steadily falling. The cost of fossil fuel-based energy does not factor in the environmental costs and when these are factored in in the future, the gap between wind and fossil fuel-based energy will close even more.
Wind Power by the Numbers
By the end of 2007, wind powered generators had a capacity of 94.1 gigawatts which represents only 1% of world-wide electricity use.
The Global Wind Energy Council confimed that over 20,00 megawatts of new wind power was installed worldwide and will generate enough annual electricity to offset 23 average-sized coal-fired power plants. This is an increase of 31% compared to 2006. (Source Global Wind Energy Council)
China added 3,449 MW of wind energy capacity in 2007, an increase of 156% and has moved to the 5th highest installed energy capacity in the world.
Wind power generation has increased between 2000-2007 more than fivefold.
Germany has the highest wind power capacity followed by the USA and Spain. However, Denmark produces 20% of its country’s electricity from wind sources and has done since 2003.
