An ambitious growth plan for wind energy laid out by the Department of Energy (DOE) and industry concludes that wind could generate 20 percent of U.S. power needs by 2030, matching what nuclear power provides today.
The Associated Press wrote in a May 13 story that to reach the 20 percent level would require 75,000 new wind turbines and a major expansion of the electric grid system to get power from high-wind areas to low-wind areas. Wind provides about 1 percent of U.S. energy today. (See a chart of U.S. power generation by fuel source, plus more electricity info)
If wind gobbles up 20 percent of the market share, natural gas consumption would drop 11 percent and coal use would fall 18 percent by 2030, the DOE report predicts. Carbon dioxide emissions would also plummet 824 million metric tons per year, which would be the equivalent of removing more than 140 million cars from our roads. (I think that’s more than half the cars in America.)
It’s great to think big when it comes to wind and alternative, renewable energy sources in general. We need to move quickly in that direction in order to mitigate global warming and enhance our economic and national security. Diversifying our energy sources makes sense in many ways. Even if we can have all alternative energy sources add up to 20 percent of U.S. power generation one day, that would be huge.
The report notes that the raw materials exist now to do this — we just need the will and the funding. Building lots of new transmission lines from remote, windy areas to less windy areas sounds like a challenge. Wind generation sites will need to be carefully sited to minimize impacts on birds and bats, but I think the benefits of wind power outweigh the drawbacks.
Did you know that you can buy wind power right now? At my house, we get half of our power from wind. Find out where to buy “green power,” including wind, near you by checking out this EPA site: http://epa.gov/greenpower/pubs/gplocator.htm
On the map on that page, click on your state to see your green power options. Be a part of the sustainable power solution!
Wind power is a highly government subsidized and unreliable power source. Please read up on the industry. It will not provide 20% of the power needed by the United States at any time in the future. It will simply eat tax dollars and cause outages.
Please understand, any technology that needs government support is a bust. Also, government is the most inefficient, bumbling method of doing anything. I have no problem with people and businesses building wind plants and trying to cut their own electric bills. There should never be a subsidy that is stolen from the taxpayer and given to a beneficiary. It is wrong and won’t work.
Yes, wind power is somewhat subsidized, but all energy sources are subsidized in some way by the U.S. government. See this FAQ from the American Wind Energy Association, http://www.awea.org/faq/wwt_policy.html#Is wind energy heavily subsidized More than other forms of energy
Older industries such as fossil fuels get larger subsidies than the younger industries such as wind and solar. You can read more about Ten Most Distortionary Energy Subsidies in this entry in Encyclopedia of Earth, http://www.eoearth.org/article/Ten_most_distortionary_energy_subsidies
Also, wind is reliable enough that wind power-generating capacity jumped almost 30 percent in 2006. Wind power supplies 3 percent of the European Union’s electricity and 11.6 percent in Germany alone. More than 20 U.S. states have passed renewable energy mandates that have spurred investment in wind and other renewables. (See ‘Vital Signs 2007-2008,’ by The Worldwatch Institute, p. 36)
Companies put wind farms in places that have lots of wind. They know how much wind to expect each year. In addition, some people are working on technologies to store energy from wind power to make this power source even more useful.
I still don’t understand your anti-government beliefs. Sure, governments are not perfect, but neither are individuals. Most, if not all, technologies get some type of government support at some point. The Internet is a good example; it was created out of work done by the Advanced Research Projects Agency in the 1960s. See Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet
Great, wind energy will really prove fruitful in near future.
Why We Need Energy Alternative
We are in the midst of an energy crisis. The price of a gallon of gas is sky high and there is a great deal of trouble-brewing in the Middle East, Iraq and Iran and other areas. These problems have made it clear to many United States citizens that we have an oil-driven economy.
The subsidies for solar and wind are way out of proportion for the energy produced. For subsidies related to electricity production,U.S. Energy Information Agency data shows that solar energy was subsidized at $24.34 per megawatt hour and wind at $23.37 per megawatt hour for electricity generated in 2007. By contrast, coal received 44 cents, natural gas and petroleum received 25 cents, hydroelectric power 67 cents, and nuclear power $1.59 per megawatt hour.
I’m all for wind power just not paying for it with my taxes.
I’d love to see that USEIA link. How much are those subsidies in dollars? Renewable energy sources provide less than 1 percent of our electricity right now, so they don’t generate many megawatts — whereas coal, nuclear and natural gas generate a bunch more megawatts. Thus the subsidy per megawatt will be less for coal, nuclear, etc.
If you are all for wind power, you should buy some for your home. See the EPA Greenpower link in my post above. You can purchase wind power directly or indirectly.
As for your taxes, you can pay now to jumpstart renewable energy production, or you can pay later for the impacts of pollution and global warming. Nothing’s free.