Pros & Cons Of Wind Energy

Wind energy's cost competitiveness continues to enhance with science and wind energy technology advances.

Fremont, CA: Wind energy provides many advantages, which describes why it's one of the quickest-growing energy sources in the world. To continue expanding wind energy's capabilities and community advantages, researchers are working to address technical and socio-economic challenges to support a decarbonized electricity future.

Advantages of Wind Power

• Wind power creates good-paying jobs. Offering career opportunities vary from blade fabricator to asset manager. The wind industry can potentially assist hundreds of thousands of more jobs by 2050.

• Renewable and clean energy comes from wind. Electricity is created by spinning a generator using wind energy. Not just is wind an abundant and unlimited resource, but it also gives electricity without burning any fuel or polluting the air.

• Wind power benefits local communities. Wind projects provide an estimated $1.9 billion yearly in state and local tax and land-lease payments. Communities establishing wind energy can use the extra revenue towards school budgets, decrease the tax burden on homeowners, and handle local infrastructure projects.

• A wind turbine is a cost-effective power source. Land-based, utility-scale wind turbines offer one of the lowest-priced energy sources accessible today. Moreover, wind energy's cost competitiveness continues to enhance with science and wind energy technology advances.

• Wind turbines work in diverse settings. Wind energy generation suits well in agricultural and multi-use working landscapes. Coastal and island communities, farms, ranches, and other rural or remote areas, where high-quality wind resources can be found, can easily integrate wind energy.

Cons of Wind Power

• Wind power must contend with other low-cost energy sources. When comparing the cost of energy with new power plants, wind & solar projects are now more financially competitive than gas, geothermal, coal, or nuclear facilities. Still, wind projects may not be cost-effective in some locations that are not windy enough. Next-generation technology, manufacturing advancements, and a better knowledge of wind plant physics can bring costs down even more.

• Ideal wind sites are usually in remote locations. Installation challenges must be overcome to bring wind farms to urban areas, where it is required to meet demand. Updating the nation's transmission network to connect areas with plentiful wind resources to population centers could significantly decrease the costs of growing land-based wind energy. Also, offshore wind energy transmission and grid interconnection capabilities are enhanced.

• Turbines produce noise and alter visual aesthetics. Wind farms have many effects on the environment compared to traditional power plants. Still, similar concerns exist over the turbine blades' noise and the landscape's visual impacts.

• Wind plants can impact local wildlife. Although wind projects rank lesser than other energy developments relating to wildlife impacts, research is still necessary to minimize wind-wildlife interactions. Improvements in technologies, properly sitting wind plants, and ongoing environmental research is working to decrease wind turbines' influence on wildlife.