Wind Energy

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how, although the development of wind energy is increasing at about 40% annually with supporting legislation in several major countries, there are two main questions to be answered---cost and the amount of land needed. The author points out that almost every region of the U.S. has some areas of good wind energy and states, lying on the Great Plains from Texas to North Dakota, have a huge wind electricity-generating potential, which far exceeds its current electricity consumption. The paper points out that environmentalists have found that wind energy can create problems of noise, land erosion, visual clutter and the killing of birds who fly into the rotating blades.

From the Paper:

"One needs to look into the future for the real impact that wind energy can make in the U.S. There are models already in place which give some indication, up to the year 2006, what might develop in these next years. It would add some 10,000 MW of new wind energy generating capacity. There would be a regular schedule for installation, which was begun in 1997 with 100KW of additional availability, and culminating by the year 2006 in the addition of 2000 MW annually. There is a reason for accelerating installation year by year. First, while it will take time to organize installation activity, they cannot be negotiated and erected overnight. It will also require a stepped-up production, whether in the U.S. or overseas (Denmark, as was mentioned earlier, is not the major manufacturer and distributor of wind-energy turbines.)."

More papers on Wind Energy:

• Research Paper # 104073 : "Wind Energy"
• Research Paper # 146634 : "Wind Energy - The Benefits of Wind Turbines"
• Essay # 30385 : "Wind Energy: A Renewable Resource."

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