Wind Energy

People have been harnessing wind power for hundreds of years. Today we are moving toward producing a significant amount of our electricity from the wind. As of 2008, we may only produce about 1% or our electricity from the wind, but that will increase as new wind farms are built.

There are many parts of the US where there are consistent winds strong enough to produce energy. The biggest issues currently facing the construction of additional wind farms are supply of the wind turbines, availability of large transmission lines in the right places and resistance to the wind farms by some local residents, lawmakers and power producers.

Another issue facing wind energy production is that the wind does not always blow at a consistent speed. Because of this, wind energy will experience periods of little or no output. There needs to be other types of power generation plants to supplement wind generation capacity when this occurs. Natural gas and nuclear fired power plants might be options because they can ramp output up and down to complement wind energy production. Coal fired power plants on the other hand must operate at a constant level and would not provide an efficient complement to wind energy production.

Below are some links to Wind Energy web sites:

.http://www.awea.org/ - The American Wind Energy Association web site.

http://www1.eere.energy.gov/windandhydro/ - The US Department of Energy Wind and Hydro power web site.

http://www1.eere.energy.gov/windandhydro/wind_basics.html - Wind energy basics.

http://www.eia.doe.gov/kids/energyfacts/sources/renewable/wind.html - The US Department of Energy kids page.

http://www.alliantenergykids.com/stellent2/groups/public/documents/pub/phk_ee_re_001502.hcsp - Alliant Energy kids page.

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