A wind farm in Scotland; Photo: beltzner
The chatter about peak oil has increased lately. That–plus this news–should really be pushing us to embrace alternative energy.
Last month, I drove from New York to Boston.
Along the way, I noticed a couple wind turbines dotting the landscape, their blades turning slowly in the coastal breeze. I wondered how much energy they produce.
According to this 2006 Boston Globe article, a single modern-day windmill generates a lot more energy than I thought: One turbine is capable of powering an entire town’s streetlights and traffic lights.
Wind turbines haven’t taken off in the U.S. yet, but it’s hard to understand why with news like this: wind farms in Spain generate more than 50% of the country’s electricity needs.
In fact, the total output of Spain’s wind farms exceeds the energy generation capacity of 11 nuclear power plants.
If this is the case in Spain, which takes third place in the top 10 list of countries using wind power, then imagine what’s going on in Denmark, which claims the top spot on that list. It gained that position, says TIME journalist Bryan Walsh, because it had the “political and public will to decide that it wanted to be a leader.”
With the conversation about the imminence of peak oil intensifying, maybe it’s time for other countries to exercise that same kind of will to explore the power of wind energy.
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Abbie-
I’ve seen those wind turbines– I don’t know for sure, but that may be the single largest wind farm in the US.
I should clarify a point in the article, too. Why does the title say that the wind farm generates too much energy and then, in the article, says it meets more than 50% of Spain’s needs? The reason is that the wind-generated energy produces more than the energy grid itself can handle, so the excess is diverted to hydroelectric plants.
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Thanks for clarifying that Julie…I was wondering myself!
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Some seriously *massive* farms in West Texas. I haven’t been on I-10 in a while but I hear it looks pretty spooky (in a good way).
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I know that they are using a LOT of wind turbines in North and North-Eastern Iowa. It’s flatter up there and more open. It’s just corn fields and wind turbines. Makes for a lot of open space for the wind to pick up pace, energy. The problem right now is finding an efficient way to store the excess energy produced by the wind turbines, because if the grid can’t handle, it is usually wasted, unless there is somewhere else for it to be stored. That’s the issue we, in Iowa, face right now.
Definitely a good alternative source, with the possibility of becoming a major source of energy in the States.
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Windfarm development is gradually taking off in the West. The biggest that I’ve personally seen is the Smokey Hills Project in Kansas constructed by an Itallian Company named Enel. This project consists of 155 turbines which stretch for several miles next to I-70 a few miles West of Salinas. Peak production is 250 megawatts, enough to power 85,000 American homes and, equally importantly, avoid the release of 750,000 metric tons of CO2 annually.
An obvious downside of wind energy is the lack of 24/7 reliability. A recent issue of Discover magazine details plans to develop a “smart grid” to better handle wind energy.
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Abbie, 30% of all wind energy in the world is generated in California, mostly in three locations of which Palm Springs is one. I’ve driven by that wind farm many times and it’s always impressive.
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