Forgot Password?
Written by Lindsay Crowder   
Share |
Tuesday, 22 July 2008

Wind

It has been estimated that almost 86% of energy used annually in the U.S. is from the combustion of fossil fuels. The pollution from these fossil fuels is responsible for 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Sources of fossil fuels-non-renewable resources that take millions of years to form-are being depleted everyday. A report put out by SRI International estimates that it would take roughly 4.2 billion solar rooftops, 300 million wind turbines, 2,500 nuclear power plants or 200 Three Gorges Dams to replace the amount of oil consumed worldwide each year.¹ Efforts are being made all over the world to find alternatives to our current energy crisis. Unfortunately, none of these renewable energy solutions are growing fast enough to displace the use of fossil fuels. At this point, wind power is one of the most abundant and sustainable ways to generate renewable energy without any toxic emissions.

The use of wind power has been around for centuries. Many parts of the world, most notably in Holland, have been using windmills to grind grains and pump water since the 7th century. It wasn’t until 1979 that the modern wind power industry began with a serial production of wind turbines in Denmark-later influencing the US, India, Germany and Spain to install turbines in the 1980s and 1990s. With a new global focus on alternative energy solutions, a stronger demand is being put on the wind industry. Thousands of wind turbines are operating around the world and most are concentrated in Europe. Denmark already meets about 20 percent of its electricity demand from wind power-more than any other country in the world. As for annual wind power generation and installed wind power capacity, Germany is the leading producer, followed by the United States, Spain, India, and finally China.

In the United States, more wind capacity has been added to the energy grid in recent years than any other country. The majority of this capacity is located in California, Texas (now the largest wind producing state), Iowa, and Minnesota, but there are wind power projects either in operation or under development in at least 36 states. According to the American Wind Energy Association, wind will generate enough electricity in 2008 to power just over 1% (4.5 million households) of total electricity in U.S., up from less than 0.1% in 1999.²

Due to an increased demand and refined technology, the cost of electricity from wind power has dropped by 80% in the last 20 years. One of the most cost-effective ways to maximize the amount of electricity from each wind farm is by choosing the site location carefully. The power available from the wind is a function of the CUBE of the wind speed, which means that, all other things being equal, a turbine at a site with 5 meters/second (m/s) winds will produce nearly twice as much power as a turbine at a location where the wind averages 4 m/s.³

The American Wind Energy Association, www.awea.org, offers a good explanation of the benefits of wind energy:

* Greater fuel diversity and less dependence on fossil fuels, which are often subject to rapid price fluctuations and supply problems. This is a significant issue around the world today, with many countries rushing to install gas-fired electric generating capacity because of its low capital cost. As world gas demand increases, the prospect of supply interruptions and fluctuations will grow, making further reliance on it unwise and increasing the value of diversity.

* Greatly reduced environmental impacts per unit of energy produced, compared with conventional power plants. Environmental costs are becoming an increasingly important factor in utility resource planning decisions. Wind energy system operations do not generate air or water emissions and do not produce hazardous waste. Nor do they deplete natural resources such as coal, oil, or gas, or cause environmental damage through resource extraction and transportation, or require significant amounts of water during operation. Wind's pollution-free electricity can help reduce the environmental damage caused by power generation in the U.S. and worldwide.

* More jobs per unit of energy produced than other forms of energy. The Renewable Energy Policy Project (REPP) estimates that every megawatt of installed wind capacity creates about 4.8 job-years of employment, both direct (manufacturing, construction, operations) and indirect (advertising, office support, etc.). This means that a 50-MW wind farm creates 240 job-years of employment.

* Long-term income to ranchers and farmers who own the land on which wind farms are built-providing steady income through lease or royalty payments. Although leasing arrangements vary widely, a reasonable estimate for income to a landowner from a single utility-scale turbine is about $3,000 a year. For a 250-acre farm, with income from wind at about $55 an acre, the annual income from a wind lease could be $14,000, with no more than 2-3 acres removed from production.

How You Can Support Wind Energy:

With wind being the world’s fastest growing energy provider, you may be interested in supporting or investing in the industry. Fortunately, there are different options available for the average American to get involved in the wind movement. One way many people are getting involved is by investing in publicly owned companies with wind energy interests. Most of the companies you identify will fall into two categories: “pure play” - those whose business is exclusively focused on wind power; and, diversified corporations with a range of operations, including some wind power holdings. For a list of companies operating in the wind industry, visit the Member Directory on AWEA’s Web site, www.awea.org/directory.

Another, more direct way, of getting involved in the wind industry is by purchasing wind power as part of a green power program. Check your local electricity market to see what companies provide green power, or you can purchase on-site renewable energy sources to be installed directly in your home. If you are interested in furthering the global benefits of wind development (like reduction of greenhouse gas emissions) but do not have the option of supporting a local wind industry, you can consider buying Tradable Renewable Certificates (sometimes called renewable energy credits, or green tags). By purchasing green tags, you are assured that the renewable energy they represent is being generated somewhere. For more detailed information about green power programs, green tag certification, and on-site wind power development, visit AWEA’s Green Power Resource Center, www.awea.org/greenpower. Contact the Green Power Network for a list of green power providers and products, www.eren.doe.gov/greenpower.


¹http://www.forbes.com/2008/07/09/energy-solar-green-biz-energy-cx_bp_0709atlas.html
²http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power
³http://www.awea.org/

Browse all Greeniacs Articles Browse all Greeniacs Guides        Browse all Greeniacs Articles
_______________________________________________________________________________




Add your comment
RSS comments

Only registered users can write comments.
Please login or register.

Click here to Register.  Click here to login.
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 09 February 2011 )

SEARCH GREENIACS.COM

Green Facts

  • A single quart of motor oil, if disposed of improperly, can contaminate up to 2,000,000 gallons of fresh water.

  • For every 38,000 bills consumers pay online instead of by mail, 5,058 pounds of greenhouse gases are avoided and two tons of trees are preserved.

  • You will save 100 pounds of carbon for each incandescent bulb that you replace with a compact fluorescent bulb (CFL), over the life of the bulb.

  • Shaving 10 miles off of your weekly driving pattern can eliminate about 500 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions a year.

  • Nudge your thermostat up two degrees in the summer and down two degrees in the winter to prevent 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere.

  • Refrigerators built in 1975 used 4 times more energy than current models.

  • Plastic bags and other plastic garbage thrown into the ocean kill as many as 1,000,000 sea creatures every year.

  • You’ll save two pounds of carbon for every 20 glass bottles that you recycle.

  • Due to tiger poaching, habitat destruction, and other human-tiger conflicts, tigers now number around 3,200—a decrease in population by about 70% from 100 years ago.

  • Recycling 1 million laptop computers can save the amount of energy used by 3,657 homes in the U.S. over the course of a year.

  • States with bottle deposit laws have 35-40% less litter by volume.

  • The World Health Organization estimates that 2 million people die prematurely worldwide every year due to air pollution.

  • Washing your clothes in cold or warm instead of hot water saves 500 pounds of carbon dioxide a year, and drying your clothes on a clothesline six months out of the year would save another 700 pounds.

  • In California homes, about 10% of energy usage is related to TVs, DVRs, cable and satellite boxes, and DVD players.

  • Every week about 20 species of plants and animals become extinct.

  • Less than 1% of electricity in the United States is generated from solar power.

  • It takes 6,000,000 trees to make 1 year's worth of tissues for the world.

  • Americans throw away more than 120 million cell phones each year, which contribute 60,000 tons of waste to landfills annually.

  • In the United States, automobiles produce over 20 percent of total carbon emissions. Walk or bike and you'll save one pound of carbon for every mile you travel.

  • Recycling 100 million cell phones can save enough energy to power 18,500 homes in the U.S. for a year.

  • Bamboo absorbs 35% more carbon dioxide than equivalent stands of trees.

  • A tree that provides a home with shade from the sun can reduce the energy required to run the air conditioner and save an additional 200 to 2,000 pounds of carbon over its lifetime.

  • 77% of people who commute to work by car drive alone.

  • Recycling aluminum saves 95% of the energy used to make the material from scratch.

  • An aluminum can that is thrown away instead of recycled will still be a can 500 years from now!

  • You will save 300 pounds of carbon dioxide for every 10,000 miles you drive if you always keep your car’s tires fully inflated.

  • Americans throw away enough aluminum to rebuild our entire commercial fleet of airplanes every 3 months

  • A steel mill using recycled scrap reduces related water pollution, air pollution, and mining wastes by about 70%.

  • Glass can be recycled over and over again without ever wearing down.

  • One recycled aluminum can will save enough energy to run a 100-watt bulb for 20 hours, a computer for 3 hours, or a TV for 2 hours.

  • Current sea ice levels are at least 47% lower than they were in 1979.

  • Turning off the tap when brushing your teeth can save as much as 10 gallons a day per person.

  • Recycling for one year at Stanford University saved the equivalent of 33,913 trees and the need for 636 tons of iron ore, coal, and limestone.

  • Americans use 100 million tin and steel cans every day.

  • Rainforests are being cut down at the rate of 100 acres per minute.

  • A laptop consumes five times less electricity than a desktop computer.

  • If every U.S. household turned the thermostat down by 10 degrees for seven hours each night during the cold months, and seven hours each weekday, it would prevent nearly gas emissions.

  • 82 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. come from burning fossil fuels.

  • American workers spend an average of 47 hours per year commuting through rush hour traffic. This adds up to 23 billion gallons of gas wasted in traffic each year.