Wind Power & its Pro & Cons

  • Added:
    Nov 15, 2012
  • Article Views:
    2279
  • Word Count:
    588

Wind Energy and Wind Power

Wind is a type of solar energy. It mainly relies on winds that results from the irregular heating of the earth's atmosphere by the sun, the earth's rotation and the various irregularities on the earth's surface. The earth's terrain, vegetative cover and the water bodies modifies the wind flow patterns. This wind flow, or simply motion energy can be transformed into electric energy if "harvested" by the use of modern wind turbines.

Generating Wind Power
The term "wind power"  or "wind energy" describe the concept by which wind is transformed into electricity or mechanical power. The wind's the kinetic energy  is converted into mechanical power by the turbines. The generated mechanical power can then be used for various tasks including pumping water, grinding grains or  to power a generator. Generators produce electric power that can be used to power businesses, schools, homes, and the like.

Wind Turbines
Wind turbines are basically fan like blades that are propelled by wind in order to rotate. The only difference from a fun is that a fan uses electricity to produce wind, while wind turbines are rotated by wind to generate electricity. Wind turbines are connected to a generator to produce electricity. The wind forces the blades to rotate and the blades spins a shaft that is connected to a generator to make electricity.

Wind power is a reliable and a clean source of energy. It is known for its potential and ability to create a long term, pollution free and a cost-effective. It is also affordable and quite sustainable. Just a single wind turbine is able to generate sufficient energy for a big household. In addition, wind power minimizes global warming. Wind turbines use fossil fuels to generate power. As such, it does not produce greenhouse gases, toxic or radioactive wastes.

Now, let’s understand the pros and cons of wind power:

Pros of wind Power:

• Wind power is gaining popularity day by day. It has turned out to be an inexpensive source of electricity, wherein users can save a lot of money.

• Wind panels are environment friendly as they do not produce any pollution.

• While producing energy from the use of fossil and renewable fuels can be noisy, electricity produced with the help of solar energy doesn’t create any noise.

• The main advantage of wind energy is that it gives access of electricity in the remotest areas. The best example to understand this is in sea, where high efficiency turbines are used to give power to water vessels.

• Installing wind power is relatively easy and cost effective as compared to setting the high voltage wires.

• Investing in the installation of  wind turbines can be high initially, but they offer free electricity later.

  

Cons of wind Power:

• When it comes to wind energy, the main disadvantage is the initial investment in technology that is required for the wind power plant. High efficiency wind turbines can be very costly, and there are chances that you may require more than one. Hence, initial investment on wind turbines can be bit heavy on customers’ pocket.

• One shortcoming of wind energy is that it can produce electricity during windy days. Hence, there are chances there may be times when wind panels will not be generating any energy for your dwellings or commercial settings.Wind turbines are heavily dependent on the weather. It means weather conditions play the deciding role in the efficiency of the turbines.

Above given are the pros and cons of solar energy. You can evaluate its significance and make your choice keeping in mind your dwelling or business requirements.

Author's Profile

Penny Rogers enjoys writing articles for InterestingArticles.com. View the Penny Rogers Author Profile


Please Rate this Article
Poor Excellent