Wind Power

Wind Power

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Technological advances are breathing new life into an energy source long tapped by humans: the wind. The first windmills for grinding grain appeared in Persia just over 1,000 years ago. They later spread to China, throughout the Mediterranean, and then to northern Europe, where the Dutch developed the towering windmills for which the country is still known. The technology found other applications, including pumping water for irrigation and drinking in the American West in the late 19th century. But it was not until the late 1970s, when Danish researchers applied advanced engineering and materials to wind-power generation, that the technology emerged as a potentially serious competitor to fossil fuels.

The Danes invented a machine composed of three propeller-like fiberglass blades that point upwind of a steel tower, on which they are mounted. The latest versions, manufactured by companies based in Germany, India, Spain, and the United States, have aerodynamic blades up to 40 m (130 ft) long. These spinning blades use a system of gears to translate their power to an electronic drive with sophisticated microprocessor controls. The generator is housed atop the tower, and like all electric generators it uses spinning magnets to create an electrical field.

Roughly 40,000 of these machines were in place worldwide by the end of 1998. In Germany, the wind industry has grown spectacularly in the 1990s. Germany’s total wind generating capacity even surpasses that of Denmark, having crossed the 1 percent threshold in 1998. In the windy northern state of Schleswig-Holstein, wind power accounts for 12 percent of the total electricity generated.

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The cost of wind-generated electricity is already competitive with coal-fired plants, the world’s leading source of electricity. Growing markets are fueling investment in the technology, which is expected to further drive costs down. Enron Corporation, the largest natural gas company in the United States, recently purchased two wind-power manufacturing companies and is developing projects around the world. Two large Japanese trading companies have announced plans to develop extensive wind-energy projects, as has a subsidiary of a major U.S. electric utility company. And companies in Denmark and The Netherlands are making plans to build offshore wind farms in the North Sea.

Wind energy is a widely available resource. In the United States, for example, sufficient winds for extensive electricity production are found in New England, the central Appalachian Mountains, around the Great Lakes, in the upper Midwest, across the Great Plains and Rocky Mountain states, and along the coastal range of the West Coast. Some experts have estimated that wind harnessed in North Dakota, South Dakota, and Texas could supply all U.S. electricity needs.

Particularly windy regions outside the United States include Patagonia in South America and the steppes of Central Asia. In northwestern China, the wind resource base has been conservatively estimated at 350,000 megawatts, sufficient to provide all of China’s electricity.

One obstacle to the development of wind energy on a greater scale is that some of the world’s largest wind resources are found significant distances from major urban and industrial centers. Developers are hesitant to invest in large wind farms without guaranteed access to markets, which in some cases would require the construction of expensive new transmission lines. But as the cost of wind turbines continues to fall, developers in some remote wind-rich regions, including Patagonia and the state of Wyoming, are considering building the additional transmission lines that are needed.

Objections to wind power include the aesthetic impact of wind turbines on the visual landscape, noise from the spinning rotors, and their potential to harm birds. However, careful siting of the turbines can reduce their visual presence, and design advances are reducing wind and mechanical noise. In addition, experts are currently studying ways to keep birds from striking the rotors.

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