Clean energy is the solution for our planet's future.
Wind power today
Twodecades of technological progress have resulted in
state-of-the-artwind turbines that are modular and rapid to
install. Today, a singlemodern wind turbine is 100 times more
powerful than its equivalent twodecades ago, and now wind farms
provide bulk power equivalent toconventional power stations.
By the beginning of 2004, globalwind power installations had
reached a level of 40,300 MW. Thisprovides enough power to satisfy
the needs of around 19 million averageEuropean households, close to
47 million people.
Asthe market has grown, wind power has shown up to a 50 percent
drop inproduction costs over the past 15 years. Now, at optimum
siteswind can be competitive with new coal-fired plants and in
somelocations can challenge gas.
Wind power by 2020
Withinstalled wind capacity growing at 30 percent over the past
few years,it is an entirely realistic goal to for wind to provide
12 percent ofthe world's energy by 2020. Along the way, this would
create twomillion jobs, and save more than 10,700 million tonnes of
carbondioxide emissions.
Thanks to continuing improvements in theaverage turbine size and
capacity, by 2020 the cost of wind power ongood sites is expected
to drop to 2.45 euro cents per kilowatt hour(kWh) - 36 percent less
than its 3.79 euro cents/kWh cost in 2003. Gridconnection is not
included in these costs, but is a factor forvirtually any new
energy site, not just wind.
Wind power beyond 2020
Theworld's wind resources are extremely large and well
distributed acrossalmost all regions and countries. Using current
technology, wind powercould supply an estimated 53,000 Terawatt
hours (TWh) per year. This ismore than twice the projected world
energy demand in 2020 - leavingsubstantial room for growth in the
industry even decades fromnow. The US alone has enough wind
potential to supply itsenergy needs three times over.
Advantages of wind:
Environmentallyfriendly - A reduction in the levels of climate
change causing carbondioxide emissions is the most important
environmental benefit from windpower generation. However, it is
also free of the other of otherpollutants associated with fossil
fuel and nuclear plants.
Extremelygood energy balance - The carbon dioxide emissions
related to themanufacture, installation and servicing over the
average 20 yearlifecycle of a wind turbine are "paid back" after
the first three tosix months of operation - which means more than
19 years of energyproduction at virtually no environmental
cost.
Quick todeploy - Construction of a wind farm can be completed
within a matterof weeks, with large cranes installing the turbine
towers, nacelles(housing) and blades on top of reinforced concrete
foundations.
Reliableand renewable resource - Wind to drive the turbines will
always be freeof charge, and unaffected by swings in the price of
fossil fuels. It also doesn't need to be to be mined, drilled for
or transported tothe generating station. As world fossil fuel
prices rise, so doesthe value of wind power, and its generating
costs will only drop.
Furthermore,in larger projects, using proven medium sized
turbines, an operationalavailability of 98 percent is consistently
achieved using wind. Meaningonly a two percent down time for
repairs - a far better performancerecord than what can be expected
from a conventional power plant.
Variability of wind
Thevariability of the wind has produced far fewer problems for
electricitygrid management than sceptics had anticipated. Swings
in energydemand and the need to protect against failures of
conventional plantsactually require more flexibility of the grid
system than wind power,and real world experience has shown that
national power systems are upto the task. On windy nights, for
example, wind turbines accountfor up to 50 percent of power
generation in the western part ofDenmark, but the load has proved
manageable.
The creationof super-grids also reduces the problem of wind
variability by allowingchanges in wind speed in different areas to
be balanced against eachother.
Moving forward
Despiteits recent rapid growth the future of wind power is
notguaranteed. Although there is some wind power today in
50countries, most of the progress so far has been thanks to the
effortsof just a few, led by Germany, Spain, and Denmark.
Othercountries will need to improve their wind power industries
dramaticallyif global targets are to be met. Therefore, the
prediction of 12percent of the world's energy from wind power by
2020 should not beseen as a sure thing, but as a goal - one
possible future we can choseif we are willing.
Find out how you can help on our Take
Action page.
More information:
www.yes2wind.com -
Includes answers to common myths about wind power.
Greenpeace report:
Windforce 12