Advantages And Disadvantages Of Wind Energy

by Xavier Hennings Marketing Manager

The wind is one of the most efficient and easy to harness renewable sources of energy found on earth. But everything has its own set of merits and drawbacks. The same is with wind power. While there are so many benefits of power harnessed from wind that it has become one of the fastest-growing energy sources, wind energy has some limitations too.

Read more to find out.

Advantages Of Wind Power

Cost-effectiveness: Because as of today's date, wind is the lowest-priced energy source available, it costs only 1-2 cents per kilowatt-hour after production tax credit. Electricity from the wind farms in Victoria is sold at a fixed price over a long period of time like 20 years, 30 years. This reduces the price uncertainty that fuel costs add to traditional sources of energy.

Creates Jobs: The Australian wind sector employs more than 100,000 workers and there is a fastest growing demand for wind turbine technicians in this industry. According to the reports, the wind sector is going to support 600,000 jobs in various industries like manufacturing, installation, maintenance and support by the year 2050.

Clean Fuel Source: Wind is a source of energy that doesn’t pollutes the environment. Power plants contribute to high pollution because they use coal or natural gas for combustion and in the process emit harmful gases like nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide and particulate matter in the air causing breathing problems in living beings and economical damage too. On the other hand, wind turbines do not produce any harmful matter that can cause acid rain, smog or greenhouse gases Thus making wind an absolutely clean and environment-friendly renewable energy wind power source.

Domestic and Sustainable energy source: Wind is the largest renewable source of energy because it is abundant and inexhaustible. Over the past 10 years, Australia’s wind power energy has grown manifolds. Wind is caused by the heating of earth’s atmosphere by sun, rotation of earth and earth’s irregularities. So as long as the sun is shining, the wind will keep blowing and hence we can harness this energy source for a very long time.

Wind turbines can be built on existing farms and ranches: wind power plants not only produce clean energy but also generate additional income for the landowners of wind farms and ranches. Since wind turbines use only a fraction of land for generation of electricity, they can be easily installed at any wind farms in Victoria and ranches and the wind power plant owners can pay rent to the landowners thus benefiting the country’s economy.

Challenges of Wind Power

Though wind power is a low-cost energy source, it still has to compete with other lowest-cost sources of electricity. But achieving a sustainable competition is not possible sometimes because some locations may not be windy enough to be cost competitive.

Good land-based wind sites are often located in remote locations where it is windy. Their locations are far from cities where electricity is needed. To do that transmissions lines must be built to bring the electricity from wind farms to the city.

Wind Resource Development is not a reliable and long term source of income. Owners of wind farms in Victoria cannot rely solely on the income generated by installing wind turbines for profit. They would have to compete with alternative uses of land which are more highly valued than electricity generation.

Power plants running on wind energy have the least impact on the environment hence they are a pollution-free source for generating electricity as compared to other power plants but in turn create a lot of noise pollution via turbine blades and also disturb the aesthetics of a land.

Wind power plants have been known to affect local wildlife, especially birds. Many birds and bats have been reported to be killed by flying into the spinning turbine blades. These wind farms and wind projects alter the habitat of animal species on which they are built resulting in the rise of endangerment of these species. However, a lot of research and thus restorative actions have been taken to save local wildlife by improving the technology and siting the turbines in correct places only.

Conclusion

There is no doubt that generating electricity by using the power of the wind is a sustainable way to generate power and enrich the lives of people in many ways. However, due to the decline in the competitive cost of wind power plants, companies and landowners are not finding it profitable to invest in setting up more power plants run by wind turbines. Hence innovation in technology is direly required to make this amazing renewable energy wind power more economically sustainbale.