Wind farms are a great way to capture wind energy as evidenced by the recent increases in wind turbine farm installations. Wind turbine systems can not compete with the power output of moder combustion power plants. Fossil fuels have a high energy density and as long as these fuels are obtained at reasonable rates the economics of wind power will make it hard to justify.
This is not as bad as you might intially think. The truth is, most things we’ve grown to take for granted in life require a solid industrial base. These industries include mining, metallurgy, timber, manufacturing, all the way down to the equipment we use to harvest our foods. A heavy industrial base needs very reliable power in very large quantities.
Let’s face it, when it comes to smelting ores, machining metals, and forging steel (just to name a few), these types of operations take a whole lot of juice. Large and variable infrastructures are difficult to power on wind or solar energy alone. The heat energy and motive power required is far too significant.
Wind turbines do makes sense in a large variety of applications, however. Wind machines are a simple tried and true way to tap a never ending source of free energy. It simply means that wind turbines are better for supplying residential power, and for small scale commercial applications.
To illustrate, a commercial size power plant capable of 500 MegaWatt output will fit in the area of 1/4 square mile without challenge. As a comparison consider a wind power farm of equal capacity. With large industrial wind turbines rated for 2 MegaWatts over 250 turbines would have to be put in place. Think about the amount of space this would require! Also consider a consistent supply of wind is required which is not always the case.
Clearly, in locations that make sense wind power solutions should be part of our energy portfolio. But we can not abandon our combustion technologies where efficiencies and pollution controls continue to improve, combustion is the heart of our economy driving our heavy industry.
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