Wind Power at the Industrial Scale
Wind turbine farms are an excellent way to the tap the energy of wind, as highlighted by the number of installations in recent years. When you look at raw output wind turbines can’t put out the power modern combustion power stations can. The energy stored in combustion fuels is significant, and as long as these fuels can be obtained at reasonable rates they will outperform the wind power market.
This is not as bad as you might intially think. The reality is that the things we have grown to love are provided by a solid industrial base. These industries include manufacturing, timber, metallurgy, mining and even production of equipment used to harvest our food supply. A heavy industrial base needs very reliable power in very large quantities.
Let’s be honest, when we have to produce steel, machine metals, and stamp cars a lot of electricity is required. A large and varied heavy infrastructure like this is hard to power on wind or alternative energy alone. The motive energy and processing is too significant.
This does not mean wind turbines don’t have their place, however. Harnessing wind power has been around for centuries and the basic design is a simple piece of machinery that taps an energy source that is free.
It simply means that wind turbines are better for supplying residential power, and for small scale commercial applications.
As an example, a 500 MegaWatt power plant can fit in a relatively small space, less than a 1/4 square mile without much difficulty. As a comparison consider a wind power farm of equal capacity. Estimating 2 MegaWatts per turbine would then require over 250 wind turbines be placed in service. Imagine the area this would require!
Keep in mind, also, that a steady supply of Wind is required which is not always the case.
When the location and conditions justify wind power it should be a 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.
Tags: Education, wind power, wind turbine