Due to the global warming threats you hear of every day, new energy resources are being looked into in order to hopefully reverse those effects that global warming has already placed on the world’s population.
Wind energy is one such way that has been developed in the last few years to generate energy by more natural means.
Wind is a natural effect that nature has given people. So, why not try to bottle that natural energy and use it for our everyday activities.
Wind energy power stations have been built in many areas of the country to see if this can be an alternative method for using mega amounts of energy at a lesser cost while saving the environment at the same time.
Environmental Benefits of Wind Energy Power Plants
The advantages of wind energy power stations that have been seen so far is that it’s an extremely environmentally friendly way to generate the energy we need without having to use fossil fuels or other environmentally unsafe material.
Wind turbines occupy a lesser space than normal power stations use.
Because the wind power stations use wind to generate energy, it costs much less to run. Wind is free, so no phenomenal costs are spent using a natural energy source. The savings of wind energy can be better spent elsewhere.
Wind power stations are much easier to generate energy in more remote areas, than the power stations normally used. They can reach remote places such as mountain areas and the huge vast of countryside areas.
If you combine wind energy power generation with solar energy, smaller developing countries or areas can benefit from the constant source of electricity that the wind turbines can provide. With the cost of building and using electrical power stations, many smaller underdeveloped countries do not have the money needed to provide their people with the luxury of electricity.
Disadvantages of Wind Energy Power Technology
With the advantages of wind energy, comes problems as well.
The disadvantages of using wind power stations are unfortunately the fact that we have to rely on wind to power the energy, but wind is not always available. It’s not always easy to predict when wind will be available to use.
There are areas where wind strength is way too low to support the necessary energy to run the wind turbines. This is where solar power would have to be used in conjunction with the wind power.
Wind energy provides enough power to a certain point, depending on the available wind to run the turbines.
If more energy is needed, we cannot generate more wind to run the turbines. In electrical power stations, more fuel would just be burned to supply the extra needed energy.
It’s been known that wind power stations can take over a year to construct and could be very costly to build in the designated area. In some cases, some of the nature’s environment would have to be sacrificed in order to put these wind turbines up for use.
Unfortunately, the noise levels that the wind turbines bring are equated with a small jet engine, which can be extremely annoying to those who live within a few hundred meters of these massive turbines.
For the most part, the noise isn’t noticeable since most of the population lives much further away.
The massive wind turbines would need to be placed within the countryside, so the majority of the population that live nearby to one usually protests the fact that some natural environment would have to be sacrificed in order to put them up. The protesting people feel it ruins the look of the countryside.
So, wind energy power stations are a major asset to our economy and to the atmosphere.
Wind energy power generation does have its drawbacks, but with future testing and developments those problems will be resolved in an environmentally friendly way.