Will It Work?

Environmental Feasibility

 

    Even though electricity from wind sounds great, that doesn't mean that we can just snap our fingers and turbines will appear. No, in order for the process of wind energy to begin, we first need to install wind turbines in a manner that it can generate enough electricity to power whole cities.

Wind turbines within a city

     In order for a wind turbine to stay sturdy and not fall over, construction workers need to install a foundation ranging anywhere from 6 to 30 ft deep. That means that if we plan to build fifteen turbines, then we have to dig 6 to 30 ft holes fifteen times. That much work may be feasible with modern engineering, but still quite a challenge.

Construction of a wind farm

     Wind turbines also take up a lot of room. Turbine shafts can be 30 to 50 ft wide so going back to the example previously, fifteen turbines in a row would total up to 450 to 750 ft. So much development going on these days would restrict the number of turbines that could be built for there is not much room.

A large wind farm taking up miles of land

     An ideal place to build wind turbines would be where there is a lot of wind. For that, we need to find the strongest convection currents which are by the water. Many people have talked about and even built turbines stretching into the sea, but the challenge of building a foundation that deep comes around again. Even if we do manage to built huge cement foundation, imagine the impact it would have on the creatures of the ocean.

Wind farm in the water

Another diagram of convection currents

 
     Therefore, finding a location that has all the requirements for a wind turbine is highly difficult and challenging. There are many consequences to installing turbines where they may harm the environment further.

Economic Viability

 

     According to the Nebraska Energy Office, "Large commercial-scale wind turbines (750 kW up to 2 MW) cost approximately $1,400 per kW (or $1.4 million per MW) of installed capacity. Smaller turbines can cost even more due to economies of sale." As you can clearly see, the cost of installing a wind turbines is high expensive and installing many at a time can drain a lot of money.

Investments in different forms of energy production

     Some may argue that the money would be wasted on a product that can already be made, but others may say that the money would be put towards a good cause. Both sides have a very good point.

     Why spend all this money on energy? We already have energy running through our cities, so why waste precious money on an item that would serve the same purpose and not change anything? There is some truth to that, and also that wind energy is not dependable enough. "A 10GW fleet of wind farms across the UK can guarantee to provide less than two percent of it's maximum output" (The Telegraph). The point of switching to a better energy source is so that the environment can be spared. Even though we have pointed out a few negative impacts, the turbines will not release any waste into the atmosphere, so it is a clean source of energy.

The difference between the forms of energy production

     For the people who say that the energy is put towards a good cause, they are right. Clean energy is a great counter solution to fossil fuels. One day, we will run out of fossil fuels and the price of energy will go skyrocketing. Why not switch to a better solution now and save the struggle? Wind energy is viable energy. Wind power was the leading source of U.S. electric generating capacity additions in 2012, overtaking natural gas. "The U.S. wind industry remains a critical part of the Energy Department’s all-of-the-above energy strategy to cut carbon pollution, diversify our energy economy and bring the next-generation of American-made clean energy technologies to market" (energy.gov). However, the problem is where the funding will come from. The U.S. government will help fund the project a bit if you apply on grants.gov. 

The Wind Technologies Market Report in 2012

     Our conclusion for the economic viability is that wind farms can be highly expensive and without the right funding, it's going to be difficult to raise enough money to pay for all the turbines. The waiting list is long, so getting money to pay for the turbines will take a long time.