What is Wind Energy and its Importance

Wind is simply air in motion. Winds are created by the sun’s uneven heating of the atmosphere in combination with the irregular surface of the earth and the earth’s rotation.Wind Power has become the biggest source of renewable energy in the world after Nuclear Energy (if you consider Nuclear to be renewable energy that is. However Wind Power has come under attack in the USA focused around the Cape Wind Project off the eastern shore. The project which was conceived over 10 years ago has not managed to still build the Wind Farm due to countless number of lawsuits filed for myriad reasons most of which are quite groundless. However some of the reasons have some solid facts behind the opposition to Wind Energy. Note Wind Energy unlike other forms of fossil fuel energy should have much  less opposition however it is not so. Unlike Coal, Gas and Oil Energy it does not lead to increase in Greenhouse Gas Emissions and contribute to pollution. It does not lead to deaths of hundreds of miners each year nor has the danger of a catastrophic nuclear meltdown leading to death and disability of thousands. It also does not have the drawback of  massive ocean pollution leading to an ecological disaster.

Uses of Wind Energy Power

Ancient Times

Wind energy has been used for centuries to move ships, pump water, and grind grain. Simple windmills with sails for rotors were used as early as the 1st century AD for milling corn and irrigating crops in Persia. In the 12th century, windmills appeared in France and England and quickly spread throughout Europe, most famously in Holland. Windmills existed throughout Asia at the same time. Early windmill structures were made of wood and were often rotated by hand or oxen to augment the energy from the wind.

Wind Energy Use Today

Note there are not many uses of wind energy unlike other renewable energy sources like hydro power or solar energy. Wind energy is primarily used to produce electricity today using the modern day wind turbine technology. It is used as windmills for agricultural applications but that usage is quite small. Most of the applications like pumping of water or processing of grains is done by electricity motors these days.

1) Electricity – The biggest use of wind energy is for generating electricity today. Note this is a modern day use of wind power and wind energy generation for electricity purposes has really taken off in the last 20-30 years. In ancient times wind energy was not use for electricity since there was no concept of electrical energy. Wind turbines use the kinetic energy in the wind, converting it into electrical energy. Massive 300 feet turbines are mounted on tall towers where the wind is faster and less turbulent. In utility-scale power applications, several hundred turbines are connected to the utility grid. Wind Farms can range from 20 MW to more than 1000 MW. Wind energy has been the second fastest growing energy technology worldwide, achieving an annual growth rate of over 30 percent.

There is almost 254 GW of wind energy capacity installed in the world today accounting for around 5% of the total global power capacity. The recent surge in wind energy installations has been from China which put up almost 40-50% of the global wind turbine installations in 2010 and 2011. Now China has surpassed every other country to become the largest wind energy country in the world with over 60 GW. While Europe earlier led by Spain, Denmark and Germany used to lead in wind capacity, they have been comprehensively overtaken by the Middle Kingdom in the last couple of years. USA comes in next but still far below its potential while the rest of the world has started  to pick up now. India is the 5th largest country and has been steadily putting up around 2-3 GW of wind capacity each year.

Top 10 Countries Wind Electricity Capacity (2011)

1. China  62,733 MW
2. United States 46,919 MW
3. Germany  29,060 MW
4. Spain 21,674 MW.
5. India 16,084 MW
6. France  6,800 MW
7. Italy 6,747 MW
8. UK 6,540 MW
9. Canada  5,265 MW
10. Portugal  4,083 MW.

2) Agriculture – Wind Turbines have been used since ancient times for water pumping and other purposes . The wind turbines are used to convert the kinetic energy into mechanical energy in these applications.

Also must read onshore wind power vs offshore wind power.

Advantages Of Wind Energy

1) No Pollution and Global Warming Effects – Wind Turbines does not lead to pollution which is one of the biggest advantages of Wind Energy. Note there are costs associated with the equipment used to build and transport Wind Equipment but the running of Wind Energy leads to no pollution.

2) Low Costs – The Costs of Wind Energy has reached the level of Gas powered Energy and can be generated at extremely low rates of around 7-8c/KwH in favorable conditions.

3) Big Industrial Base – Wind Energy has become a mainstream source of energy and a large industrial base already exists. This allows a rapid deployment of Wind Power in most places in the world. The number of Wind Turbine Producers is increasing with a number of Asian firms entering the industry.

4) No Fuel Cost – Wind Energy does not require any fuel like most other sources of renewable energy. This is a huge advantage over other fossil fuels whose costs are increasing at a drastic  rate every year. Electricity prices are increasingly rapidly in most parts of  the world much faster than general inflation. Price shocks due to high fuel costs are a big risk with fossil fuel energy these days.

5) Offshore Advantage – The next big growth spurt in Wind Energy is coming from the offshore Wind Energy sector. Huge Wind Turbines of 5 MW and above are being built around 30-40 kms from the coasts. This has the advantage of no land usage, no noise problems and the wind is much better leading to higher load factors. The costs are currently higher but in the future are expected to come rapidly come down. USA has enough offshore wind potential to replace the whole fossil fuel electricity being consumed right now.

6) Small Wind Turbines gaining some traction – While Wind Turbines are not generally used in distributed form, it is possible to now use small wind turbines being built by a number of companies to power small establishments.