Wind Power Is A Growing Source Of Alternative Energy

Wind power costs per kilowatt hour have decreased over the past two decades, though prices have fluctuated in the past three years. The Department of Energy estimates that prices may increase in the next year. Wind power generation has grown significantly since the price of oil has gone up and the extra added costs of pollution have become apparent. In the last two decades, wind power system designs have been developed, matured and have become a lot more practical than they were only a few years ago.

Wind power plants, or wind farms as they are sometimes called, are clusters of wind machines used to produce electricity. A wind farm usually has dozens of wind machines scattered over a large area. Wind power has good synergy with plug-in vehicles, which charge at night when the expected wind output is highest. Solar power goes best with air conditioning, which peaks alongside solar radiation. Wind power plants consume resources in manufacturing and construction. During manufacture of the wind turbine, steel, concrete, aluminum and other materials will have to be made and transported using energy intensive processes, generally using fossil energy sources.

Wind power was the most rapidly growing means of alternative electricity generation at the turn of the century, and world wind generation capacity more than quadrupled between 2000 and 2006. Wind power is produced by using wind generators to harness the kinetic energy of wind. It is gaining worldwide popularity as a large scale source of energy, although it still only provides less than one percent of global energy consumption. Wind power facilities can also degrade or destroy habitat, cause disturbance and displacement, and disrupt important ecological links. These impacts can be avoided or significantly reduced, however, with proper siting, operation and mitigation.

Wind power has not been quite as readily accepted for home power generation for several reasons. First of all, wind power has greater requirements for open space and access to wind for efficient operation. Wind power is coming of age however. In 2007, some 20,000 megawatts of wind were installed globally, enough to power 6 million homes. Wind powered generators will be harder to come across than normal fuel generators but there are many useful applications for them, including charging batteries and powering small appliances and tools. Many remote farms and electrical facilities have wind farms that are used to harness power in areas of high wind.

Wind power will probably succeed or fail based on the ability or inability of its proponents to focus on defining wind generation's role as a practical alternative to conventional generation sources. Wind power is the best possible demonstration of the selfish, deluded nature of most non-professionals who try to engage in the energy debate. The technology is already pretty robust. Wind power, despite its recent advances, is still in a delicate position. It already produces around 1 percent of the country's electricity.