Wind Power Energy over Fossil Fuels

February 19th, 2008

 

Article Overview:
It’s a heated debate between fossil fuels and renewable energies. Fossils fuels, while becoming slightly pricier, are pollutants unlike renewable energy sources. But, fossil fuels are the “standard” in today’s society and are readily available. Wind power is a type of renewable energy that can be implemented in many parts of the world to provide electricity. When will the world finally become independent from fossil fuels?

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The debate between fossil fuels and its alternatives has developed into one of the more discussed topics across the globe. In today’s world much stress is being put on creating alternate types of energy from that of fossil fuels. This idea gains more strength each year as fossil fuels are a limited, non renewable resource which are beginning to dwindle. One potential alternative, at least for electricity, is wind power which is a renewable resource. There are several types of renewable energy on the rise today. Along with wind power there is also solar power, hydro power, geothermal, biomass and biofuels. These renewable resources combine for only a small percentage of the total power consumed and wind power specifically accounts for approximately only one percent of energy used world wide. However, wind power has incredible theoretical potential. The potential energy in our atmosphere is greater than the total global energy consumption (wwea).For many, wind isn’t a well known source of harness able energy. Even though its first human uses date back to the first century (a.d.) it is just recently that many countries have begun to fully understand and use wind as a significant type of energy. Wind power is the conversion of energy produced by the wind into a consumable form, such as electricity. It is collected by windmills and, more frequently, wind turbines. Each year the use of wind power across the globe increases dramatically as it has more than quadrupled since the year 2000.

With the constantly rising prices of oil one major point of discussion related is the economics associated with wind power. The cost to produce a single turbine is rather expensive which draws criticism especially when considering that turbines are typically placed in groups in order to produce a significant amount of energy. Supporters of wind power counter that argument by pointing out turbines pay for their own production costs in a matter of months. Also “Improved turbine designs and plant utilization have contributed to a decline in large-scale wind energy generation costs from 35 cents per kWh in 1980 to less than 5 cents per kWh in 1997 in favorable locations At this price, wind energy has become one of the least-cost power sources” (wind energy). Another issue with the costs of wind energy is that the locations in which turbines are most effective aren’t the same locations as where the energy is demanded. Consequently that requires the production of new substations and transmission lines again costing substantially more money. On the other side, wind power consumers have the ability to create long term contracts to prevent potential future rises in pricing. Consistent pricing is often associated with wind power, which is one of its advantages over fossil fuels. Most of the costs related to wind power are relatively fixed while the ongoing costs of fossil fuels can be volatile.

The environmental effects of wind power are another highly controversial topic for both supporters of wind power and its critics. Proponents note that wind energy reduces pollution and carbon dioxide emissions. Since wind power doesn’t consume any fuel it in turn doesn’t produce any type of air pollutant; where as the negative environmental effects (the pollution) caused by consuming fossil fuels are well known. Adversaries will argue while that may be the case the materials used in building a wind turbine will have to be transported and the transportation used will more than likely run on fossil fuels. Further more wind turbines require large amounts of land space and are considered by some to be rather unsightly.

It has been observed that wind turbines have had a negative impact on wildlife. Some birds, particularly birds of prey have been killed by turbines. This number is however in significant compared to the number of birds killed by traffic. Many bats are also killed by turbines and at a much more alarming rate. It is believed that as many as two thousand bats were killed by a number of turbines in a matter of just six weeks. More research is needed to determine what if any effect these deaths had on the over all bat population for the different species. It is believed that turbines located off shore by at least ten kilometers don’t affect bats. However turbines located off shore effect other animals. There is a question of whether ocean noise generated by the operation of turbines is significant enough to affect or harm sea mammals. The deeper the water levels the further area the sound is carried affecting more of the ocean. Reportedly these vibrations could effect communications of whales and potentially the distribution of their prey. Further testing is still needed as much of these ideas are simply theoretical.

There are many other advantages associated with wind power to offset the negatives. One of which is conserving our limited resources. Today fossil fuels are used for heat, electricity and in fuelling automobiles. Using wind power negates the need for fossil fuels at least for electricity saving this resource for other uses. Also wind energy saves thousands of dollars in electricity bills. Individuals or corporations who construct wind turbines can actually generate income. An example is and individual in Michigan who plans on constructing four wind turbines on his property expects to earn any where from eighteen to thirty thousand dollars a year.

The one last hazard with wind energy is its unpredictability. If wind power is to be used for electricity consistently it is necessary that the amount of wind energy itself must be consistent. There are attempts to predict wind power but so far they’ve yielded a relatively low success rate and wind itself is constantly variable.

Overall I believe that the positives associated with wind power and its use as a replacement or alternative to fossil fuels far outweigh the negative consequences. While many view a vast field stocked with wind turbines as unsightly I take the opposite approach and see it as beautiful. To me the turbines represent progress in an effort towards finding an alternate source of power, one that doesn’t pollute and is virtually unlimited unlike fossil fuels which are limited in supply and cause great conflict sometimes even leading to war. Once wind turbines are in place they are relatively cheap to maintain and produce cheaper electric and in not using fossil fuels we can reduce or even eliminate our dependency on foreign oil.

The debate on which types of energy has no clear end in sight. While there is great support for alternatives to fossil fuels the United States along with many other countries are currently highly dependent on oil. Both types of power have their own advantages and disadvantages creating an argument for each side. Eventually it seems humans will extinguish the many of the Earth’s natural resources including crude oil and we will be forced to find alternative sources of power.

Works Cited

New World Record in Wind Power Capacity. World Wind Energy Association. 29 January 2007. 19 January 2008 <http://www.wwindea.org/home/images/stories/pdfs/pr_statistics2006_290107.pdf.>

Smith, J.C., and E.A. DeMeo. Wind Power Impacts on Electric Power System Operating Costs. Colorado: NREL, 2004.

Wilson, Paul. “Generate Jobs with Wind Power, Study Says.” Columbus Dispatch 24 august 2007, business 12C.

Wind Energy: construction of modern wind turbine. 10 January 2008 <http://winds-energy.blogspot.com/2007/09/consrtuction-of-modern-wind-turbine.html>

Wind: powering a cleaner, stronger America. American wind energy association.
9 January 2008 <http://www.awea.org/>

Windpower Monthly Magazine. Jan. 2008. Windpower Monthly.
10 January 2008 <http://windpower-monthly.com/>

This paper was written by J. Davidson at The Ohio State University.

Entry Filed under: Renewable Energy, Resources