What are the Wind power advantages and disadvantages?

Wind energy advantages and disadvantages

If you go through the list of wind energy advantages and disadvantages detailed in the post it would be apparent that due to several notable advantages, wind energy has become one of the fastest growing energy sources in the world.

The first and foremost advantage of wind energy is – wind is an unlimited, free, clean renewable resource. The United States, where about 30 percent of global warming emissions come from the use of fossil fuels like coal and natural gas for electricity generation, is actually aiming to produce a significant amount of its electricity from this clean energy source in order to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels. This has made wind energy as the fastest-growing clean energy source in America. There is a huge potential of wind power in US. Experts believe that wind could provide about 20 percent of the nation’s electricity by 2030.

Here in this post I have given an overview of wind power advantages and disadvantages one needs to know for addressing the challenges to greater use of this most environmentally-friendly clean power of the future. Before we get to discuss the wind energy advantages and disadvantages, let’s have some basic idea about what is wind energy and how does wind energy work.

What is wind energy and how does wind energy work?

Wind energy is a form of energy produced through wind turbines that use the movement of air as the power source, which is called ‘wind power’.

The movement of the air which causes wind to blow, produces kinetic energy in the wind, which can be used to produce useful energy. When the wind blows, the kinetic energy from movement of the wind produces mechanical power which turns the 3 propellers-like blades of a turbine (called rotor) mounted on a tall tower (as shown in the pic) around an electromagnetic generator that is connected to the main shaft. As the wind blows it makes the rotor spin, which turns the generator which in turn converts the wind power into electrical energy.

Now that we know the basics of how does wind energy work to produce electricity let’s see what are the wind power advantages and disadvantages to understand why investment for greater use of this environmentally-friendly clean power is worth it, for our homes and/or businesses.

You may also like to read: Wind Turbine parts – functions of major parts of a Wind Turbine

Wind energy advantages and disadvantages

Advantages of wind energy

Renewable resource

One of the major advantages of wind energy that needs mention is that unlike coal, oil, and gas, which are finite resources, wind energy is a renewable resource that can never be depleted. Wind energy is derived from the sun. As explained above winds are caused by uneven heating of the earth’s surface by the sun. When one patch of the earth is heated more directly, that part becomes warmer than others. The warm air from that patch rises and cooler air rushes in from other parts to replace it, creating wind flow. So wind energy is actually a form of solar energy too. As long as the sun shines we will have wind to generate electricity.

No atmospheric emission

Wind power produces no greenhouse gas emissions during operation. This is also one of the most important advantages of wind energy use.

Wind energy is a clean energy source meaning there is no resulting environmental pollution like those from non-renewable power sources like fossil fuels such as coal, oil or gas. Combustion of fossil fuels for electricity generation produces atmospheric emissions that cause acid rain or greenhouse gasses (Carbon Dioxide, Methane, Nitrous oxide and Ozone). While coal produces over 70% of the power sector’s greenhouse gas emissions, natural gas-fired power plants produces about 20%.

Needs little land area

Production of wind power needs little land area. With today’s technology, the land use by wind turbines is much less than the conventional power stations, which is less than 1% of its land area. A typical wind farm consisting of 20 turbines covers an area of about 1 square kilometer of which less than 5% is occupied by wind equipment including turbines, access roads etc. Farmers and ranchers can continue to use the remaining 95% of the land for farming or ranching purpose.

Quick installation of wind turbine

Installation of the wind turbines does not take much time. Once the formalities relating to site selection and various statutory approvals are completed, wind turbine installation can be completed in months as against years for a coal, gas, or nuclear plant. Since wind turbines are easily expandable such quick construction can accommodate ever growing demand for wind power effortlessly.

Wind turbine can be installed anywhere

Another advantage of wind energy use is that the wind turbines can be installed wherever we want provided wind currents are present there. Wind power isn’t limited to sprawling wind farms only. Depending on local wind patterns some locations will offer greater efficiency than others. We can install turbines in our homes even to meet our energy needs at a relatively low cost.

Cost effective 

The production and operational costs associated with wind power generation are one of the lowest among other renewable energies. To date, wind energy is the most cost competitive renewable energy option on the market. In fact, wind energy’s cost has dropped so much over the years that it compares with many conventional power generation technologies. No fuels need to be mined and transported for wind power generation and the costs for staffing and maintenance are minimal. Hence cost effectiveness is one of the major advantages of wind energy use.

Declining costs

With increasing popularity of wind power and growing environmental concerns, the Global Wind Energy Council predicts global wind capacity will reach almost double its current size very shortly. Due to technology improvements and cost advantages realized from economies of scale, the cost of producing wind energy has steadily declined over the years and is expected to keep decreasing further with increasing volume of output. In fact according to a recent report the cost of energy for wind power has generally decreased more than 55% since 2009.

Price stability

Unlike electricity from fossil fuel based plants, which is prone to substantial price swings depending on the availability and transportation of the resources, wind power comes with a relatively fixed price, that likely to drop considerably over time.

Creates Jobs

Job creation is also one of the major advantages of wind energy. Wind energy project is more labour intensive as compared to fossil fuel based generating plants, which are capital intensive. On an average, for each unit of electricity generation, wind energy projects create 30% more jobs than fossil fuel based plants and 60% more than a nuclear power plant.

Wind energy disadvantages

High initial investment

One of the major wind energy disadvantages that comes to the front while discussing wind energy advantages and disadvantages is that installation of a wind farm requires high initial investment. Even though the cost of wind power has declined considerably over the years, it requires a higher initial investment for building a wind farm than fossil-fuel generating plants.

It requires a lot of open land to set up wind turbines in a wind farm. Suitable areas for wind farms are usually near the coast, where land is quite costly. On an average, development of wind power costs around $1.75 million per megawatt of generating capacity installed. About 80% of the investment goes to machinery purchase and balance 20% to procurement of land, site preparation and installation. To take advantage of economies of scale, capacity of wind power farm should be in excess of 20 MW. This means, assuming an average rating of wind turbine at 750 kilowatts, it will require installation of at least 26 turbines and an initial investment of $35 million dollars.

Unpredictable nature

The unpredictable nature of wind flow is also one of the major wind energy disadvantages. While conventional power stations can manage their production as they wish, generation of energy by wind turbines depends on the local air flow. If the weather is not in your favor and there is insufficient air flow, power production will drop to zero. Therefore, so long there is no cost-effective energy storage system to serve as backup, wind power is not suited as a base load power source. In order to meet energy demand with reliability, wind turbines have to be linked to standby power supplies. This will hopefully change with future innovation in energy storage technology or with integration of wind energy into the power grid.

A Threat to Wildlife

In the early days of wind power the blades of wind turbines sometimes posed a threat to Wildlife, particularly to the birds. Birds had a habit of bumping into the blades, and many even used to build their nests in the structures themselves. While bird strike is still a problem for wind farms it’s not nearly as serious as it was in the past. It’s more of a design challenge than a stubborn problem. Modern turbines are designed to operate at a higher efficiency than the earlier models i.e. supplying the same power while the blades spin at a much lower speed. With flat surfaces replacing the old girders, towers have also been redesigned to stop birds from nesting.

Wind turbine noise

The noise produced by wind turbines is also a contentious issue. Though wind turbines do not create extraordinary levels of sound which may have direct impact on physical health, there have been some concerns expressed regarding supposed health effects of noise from the wind turbines. However, modern turbine designs have significantly reduced whatever sounds, both mechanical and aerodynamic (i.e. from air moving past the blades), originating from the wind turbines. The wind farms are now comparatively quieter than other industrial facilities.

Before I conclude the discussion on wind power advantages and disadvantages let me also reply to some of the related questions often heard about windmills.

Are windmills bad for the environment?

Using windmills to produce energy has fewer effects on the environment than many other energy sources. Windmills do not pollute the air or water by emitting any pollutants and they also do not require water for cooling purpose.

Are wind turbines dangerous to birds?

Wind turbines can pose a threat to flying wildlife like birds and bats from direct collisions with turbines blades as birds have the habit of bumping into the turbine blades.

Is it safe to live near wind turbines?

Scientific studies have found that living near wind turbines does not pose any health risk for humans.

Conclusion

While wind power may not be an ideal solution to our energy needs, the wind energy advantages and disadvantages detailed in the post clearly show that the advantages of wind energy heavily outweigh the wind energy disadvantages. There is no denying the fact that fossil fuel or nuclear power plants cannot be totally replaced by wind farms and it needs to be acknowledged that we will also need conventional power plants as backup when wind farms produce almost no electricity.

Although wind power can only supplement other sources of energy for now, it is clear from the list of wind power advantages and disadvantages that this green power is inexhaustible and provides an endless supply of clean energy that can be produced easily and cheaply and can replace the environmentally harmful conventional energy sources.