Wind power has become increasingly popular because it burns no fossil fuels and produces electricity without emitting no green house gasses into the air. However, questions about it remains and many people doubt about the possibility of using wind power to combat the global warming. Even though I'm supporting wind power, I constantly question about it.
Before going on, to find out more about wind power, you can read about Wind Power in Wikipedia
Here are the most two popular questions about wind power. I will provide my pros and cons ideas for comparison.
Is Wind Energy economical ?
Pros
Wind power require no water. Unlike other forms of energy generation, wind turbines use no water for cooling or as a medium for transferring the heat energy into an usable one.
Wind is abundant, and can supply a massive amount of power. There is more wind in the Earth that we could ever need for electrical production.
Wind power will help us hedge against the volatile of traditional fossil fuels, thus, increase our energy security.
Wind power creates new jobs.
The rising cost of fossil fuels makes wind power more competitive
Cons
Wind projects require a huge amount of capital investment because the installation of wind turbines are expensive.
The output can be inconsistent because there can't be wind all the time. That makes it less dependable than other polluting energy source.
Wind energy is far from the demand area. To capture the best winds, on-shore wind farms are constructed far from the city or coastal areas where the demand for electricity is the highest.
Is wind power consistent with electrical grids?
Pros
All the power generations need backup, not just wind power because no generation method is 100% reliable. We can use energy storage batteries or combine other types of renewable energy such as: solar and bio-mass
Cons
Wind projects can strain the electricity grids which are not designed for many disparate wind farms
GE General Electric Commercial : Capturing the wind and putting it to good use - Wind Energy from GE, the cleanest renewable energy on earth.
(The ad has been nominated for the most outstanding commercial in the Emmy Awards 2007.)
Over a few years, we rapidly increased our wind power capacity. According to U.S Department of Energy, wind power can supply up to 20% of all U.S electricity needs. New wind farms can create electricity in 5-8 cents per kWh, making wind energy competitive with the cost of electricity generation by fossil fuels. However, in 2010, the installations was slowed because of the financial crisis and recent recession.
The map of wind power in America.
A poster about Wind Power I found on AWEA's facebook - American Wind Energy Association.
I'm in favor of wind energy. It makes sense that wind energy is good for environment, but it is also good for our economy. The growth of wind power created hundreds of construction jobs as well as permanent "wind jobs". It also creates demands for wind turbines and components for those turbines, which will stimulate our slow manufacturing sector.
The United States had pioneered in building wind farms and was the leader in installed capacity in the 1980's and 1990's. In the last decade of 2000s, China has expanded their wind installations and surpassed U.S in 2010 to become the world leader in wind power.
