When it comes to green sources of energy, most of the attention is devoted to different types of clean fuels that have the ability to make cars and factories run more efficiently while reducing the amount of toxins released into the Earth’s atmosphere. So why doesn’t wind power garner similar attention? While green advocates like Al Gore and Arnold Schwarzenegger aren’t known for speaking very well about the virtues of wind power, recent news indicates that this area is gaining more attention, even if the technology doesn’t pack the punch of other alternative forms of energy.
One of the side effects of China’s booming economy is the havoc being wreaked on the atmosphere due to large volumes of carbon dioxide and other pollutants being produced. It was announced this week that China is set to overtake the United States as the world’s biggest source of greenhouse gases within months — much earlier than forecast — because of its runaway economic growth. China now releases about 5 billion tons of CO2 a year, according to the report “Energy Revolution: A Sustainable China Energy Outlook,” released yesterday in Beijing.
In response, the country is taking a long, hard look at how it can reduce emissions, Xinhua reports.
Wind power might be the ticket, as 4,000MW of wind power capacity is possible by the end of 2007, according to research reported by Manufacturing.Net earlier this month. Industrial Info Resources has found that China’s geography provides an estimated wind power potential of 3.2 billion kilowatts, and it is expected to surpass Germany and the U.S. as the world’s largest wind power producer by 2020.
While these are no doubt impressive statistics, it is important to understand what it is involved to make wind power work.
The National Center for Policy Analysis recently provided a short and sweet guide of examples to wind power that highlights both its merits and its shortcomings. Consider these NCPA facts that don’t exactly paint a rosy picture for wind power:
• In 2002, there were 54 days in western Denmark on which the wind power systems supplied less than 1 percent of demand, according to an analysis by Denmark energy consulting firm Incoteco.
• For half the days in Germany in 2004, wind plant output was less than 11 percent of rated capacity; in California, at the time of peak demand in July 2006, turbines generated 10 percent of capacity, and Texas generates about 17 percent.
• In contrast, coal and natural gas plants generate at a little better than 70 percent of capacity, and nuclear plants at more than 90 percent.
“If our electricity was generated only by wind turbines, such inefficiencies and variability in the electrical power supply would be routine and entirely unacceptable,” says Pete du Pont, chairman of the NCPA and former governor of Delaware. Du Pont also cites plenty of wind power benefits, though, and says the technology is best used as part of a larger, alternative energy strategy.
Shortcomings notwithstanding, plenty of people are betting big on wind power’s potential.
The San Jose Mercury News this week takes an in-depth look at how European wind-energy companies will soon be landing on U.S. soil to tap what appears to be an untapped wind energy market here. Check it out:
Two deals announced last monthreflect the competition. Portuguese utility EDP Energias de Portugal SA agreed to pay $2.15 billion to buy Houston-based Horizon Wind Energy LLC, from investment bank Goldman Sachs, giving the company its first toehold in the U.S. And Denmark's Vestas Wind Systems, the world's largest wind turbine maker, announced plans to build a $60 million wind turbine blade factory in Colorado, its first U.S. manufacturing plant.
Some say this isn’t such a good thing for the U.S., and that we’re missing a huge revenue opportunity.
“We could have had our own homegrown wind-power companies competing for these new wind farm developments and manufacturing (plants) had we had the right policies in place,” according to Ron Pernick, a principal with research firm Clean Edge Inc.
The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA)'s latest annual rankings claim that there has been a steady growth in market. “These wind power rankings tell the story of a vibrant industry that is growing fast, competing hard, gaining market share, and all the while powering a cleaner, stronger America,” Randall Swisher, executive director with AWEA, said in a statement published by ElectricNet mid-this month.
The rankings released by the AWEA list not only the U.S. states that produce most power from wind, the largest wind farms in the nation and the leading wind turbine suppliers, but this year also include the rankings of “Congressional districts having most wind-power installed.”
So, even though wind power might not be as efficient as other sources of alternative energy, it sure seems as though it is gaining a lot of global attention.
Is wind energy able to meet future energy demands more effectively, or is it simply a concept that is full of hot air and a way for investors to make a quick buck?
Source:
http://news.thomasnet.com/IMT/archives/2007/04/is_wind_power_full_of_hot_air_merits_shortcomings.html?t=recent
