Wind Energy and you, what you want and need to know!

A great deal of our lives are affected by wind, and its importance is littered through novels, stories and history, but in 2009 there is great debate about harnessing the true power of wind and turning it into a renewable, green, natural form of energy, and more importantly obtaining this energy isn't 1000's of miles away in a distant land, for most of us it's in our backyard. Now I am not suggesting we all erect a 100-400+ ft tall wind turbine with a wing span of over 70 meters, but what I am suggesting is that we open our minds to what this could do not only for us, but for future generations. Amid all the negative hub-bub I decided to do some research on these large, white, graceful (I think they are graceful) sticks in the ground and see what is it about them that people both love, and hate! (follow the links on the bottom for links to the REAL experts)

Pros
*They emit no pollutants, waste or greenhouse gas.

*They do not extract any resources from the Earth.

*Due to technological advancements they are becoming much more efficient. Let's compare a turbine from 1981 to today. In 1981 the rotor diameter ( Rotor diameter is the area swept by the blades, the larger the sweep the more energy output) was 10 meters, today the rotor diameter is 71 meters. (meaning they are bigger and A LOT taller) total cost $65.00 today $1,300.00, cost per KW hour 1981 $2600.00 today $790.00 total output of energy 1981-45,000 KWhours / year, Today 5.6 Million KWhours / year. Simplified down, they are bigger, cheaper and are far more efficient than their 81 counter parts. That is a trend we can all be happy about.

*Construction of wind farms are becoming more efficient. Studies have shown that larger farms are not only more economical to build, they are more efficient as they are constructed in better placed areas. (windy areas)

*With the above in mind, when wind speeds increase, the cost goes down. with 7.15 mps (meters per second) cost per KW is: $0.048 ~ 8.08 mps cost per KW $0.036 ~ 9.32pms cost per KW $0.026.

Con's
*They are not, in most people's opinions visually appealing.

*They kill birds:
Let's explore that fact. Turbines have been called "raptor-matics" and the "Cuisinart of the sky" There are about a million different statistics regarding bird deaths, and you could spend weeks if not months weeding through all of the information but here is a quick snapshot of what your humble blogger found. Birth deaths can happen due to any number of the following: Natural collisions, miss landings, or flying into other birds. Loss of habitat due to human interference. Collisions with windows, planes, turbines. Electrocution from transmission lines (typically large wing span birds "raptors"). All of these types of situations collectively are estimated to cause 310,000,000 deaths. Which is a lot of deaths, but when you compare all of those statistics to a wind farm near Palm Springs California the picture changes. The San Gorgonia Pass Wind Farm where approximately 69 million birds flew through and 38 deaths occurred. That is 0.00006%. Yes they do result in bird deaths, but so does erecting sky scrapers.

*They throw ice blocks off their blades causing injury to people and property.
Visit http://www.awea.org/ for in depth descriptions on the possibility of 20 feet long pieces of ice spearing through your roof (side note: won't happen despite what you find on youtube.com) The very simplified reason is, the ice that does build up on the blades significantly changes the shape and lift of the blades (imagine a commercial airliner the same reason the blades do not turn is why airplanes are de-iced before take off) making them turn almost in slow motion. There have not been too many studies done because people in the industry do not feel that it is a serious enough risk to people and buildings.

The following links do a much better job in showing why wind is a real viable option freeing everyone from dependency on fossil fuel and hopefully will put us on the road to being kinder to the planet we all share.

http://www.windenergyamerica.com/
http://www.awea.org/
http://www.wind4me.com/