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Wind Energy

bigstock-Wind-turbines-16465340I wanted to talk about wind energy next after solar power because it’s another extremely talked about form of alternative energy. Although it’ s talked about often I don’t think people give it enough credit. Large wind turbines can be very effective in producing large amounts of energy and wind farms are popping up across the United States and the world.

I don’t think wind energy is as promising as solar power but I think if used in tandem with solar power it could be very effective. One large wind turbine (typically around 200 feet high) can power up to 600 homes. Wind farms have dozens of these turbines in particularly windy areas and one farm can power thousands of homes. Also small wind turbines are available for personal instillation in your own home. The small turbines can easily produce enough power to fuel a single home. Like solar power this has no cost after purchase and instillation and requires little to no maintenance.  Also like solar power wind energy is completely renewable and carbon-emission free, it eliminates power bills, and installing turbines in your home gets you a nice tax break. There are clear benefits to switching to a wind powered home and this is why there has been a 25% increase in wind energy in the last decade.

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However, there are more negative aspects of switching to wind energy than solar power. The biggest problem with wind energy is that the wind is variable. The wind has to be blowing for the turbines to produce power so if you have a day with no wind there would be no power coming from the turbines. The turbines are also noisy and many people find them aesthetically unappealing. The solution to this is to build wind farms instead of expecting people to build turbines for their own homes. Also the farms would have to be built away from residential areas. Building these wind farms away from homes will contribute to noise pollution in the area they will be built which would previously be mostly untouched by humans. Noise pollution is actually a serious problem and can disturb entire ecosystems in very serious ways. The turbines are also known to kill birds and bats. They kill less wildlife than power lines and cars but we should still try to lean towards alternative energies that don’t kill wildlife.

I think wind energy is not the best form of alternative energy but it is practical, efficient, and renewable. I think if wind energy is really going to be looked at as a source of energy a lot needs to be invested in improving the technology and the turbines. However, behind solar power it is the most promising form of clean alternative energy. It is already implemented on a wide scale in many countries including Germany, Spain, The United States, and Denmark and the amount of turbines in China and France is rapidly increasing as well. At the end of last year, global capacity was more than 70,000 megawatts ( one megawatt powers about 250 US homes). The use of wind energy is becoming more and more widespread and will predicted to keep expanding. By 2050 it is predicted that wind energy could account for one-third of the world’s energy consumption. Hopefully that is true, but for now people should really be focusing on improving and implementing wind energy as much as possible.

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