Pros And Cons Of Wind Energy

Barendorf, Baltic Sea     As I am traveling along Germany’s and Denmark’s Baltic Sea coast, clusters of wind turbines are a frequent sight.  According to media reports, Europe installs twenty wind turbines a day.  Ten of the European Union’s (EU) 27 countries have reached wind power capacities of more than one gigawatt (or one billion watt).

In 2008, the countries of the EU installed more wind power than any other electricity-generating technology.  Figures produced by the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) showed wind power providing 43 percent of new capacity compared with 35 percent for gas, 13 percent for oil, 4 percent for coal and 2 percent for hydropower.

Last year, Germany and Spain both installed more than 1.6 gigawatt while US wind power capacity rose by 50 percent to a total of 25 gigawatt.  Germany, which is as large as Montana, is close behind the U.S. with 24 gigawatt, thus presently Europe’s leading wind power producer.

World capacity is presently growing at a 30 percent rate, and may exceed 100 gigawatt in 2009.  The Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) said China, whose capacity doubled for the fourth year in a row, was set to reach second place by 2010 and may meet its 2020 target of 30 gigawatt 10 years ahead of schedule.

The GWEA's figures come at a time of heightened EU debate over the role of nuclear power, with France awarding the contract for its second controversial pressurized reactor to a state-owned operator.  There is also concern over the viability of plans to generate 20 percent of energy from renewables by 2020, over the future of carbon emissions trading and over the security of gas supplies from Russia.  EWEA’s officials are on record saying the “figures show that wind energy is the undisputed number one choice in Europe's efforts to move towards clean, indigenous renewable power," and that wind energy is so far the only technology capable of delivering the necessary carbon dioxide cuts in the critical period up to 2020.

Yet, Europe’s new wind power capacity costs €11 billion and should, in a normal year, produce 142 trillion watt hours but presently fills only 4.2 percent of the EU’s demand for electricity.  The GWEC admitted that financing for new projects and orders "slowed to a trickle" in the US as the economic crisis deepened.

The Danes pioneered the commercial development of wind power during the 1970s and today produce half of the world’s wind turbines.  Yet, to this day no conventional electrical power plant has been shut down in Denmark, because due to the intermittency and variable strength of the wind, conventional power plants must be kept running to meet the actual demand for electricity.  High-demand periods of cold and hot weather often coincide with periods of low wind strength.

Already in 1998, Norway commissioned a study of wind energy technology in Denmark and concluded that it suffers from serious environmental effects, insufficient production, and high costs.  In 2007, wind energy provided 19.7 percent of Denmark’s electricity, but only 24.1 percent of the turbines’ capacity.  The Economist recently reported that even the most modern turbines can reach no more than 50 percent of capacity.

In spite of Denmark’s accomplishments in the development of usable wind energy, the Danish government has cancelled plans for three offshore wind farms and has scheduled the withdrawal of subsidies from existing production facilities.  More advances in wind power production are apparently required before this technology can became a standard source of alternative energy worldwide.