Is Wind Power (or other Renewable Sources) actually needed?

Question

Pros and Cons.

Answer 1

Wind power is competitive economically with electricity generated by fossil fuels.

Electricity generated by wind power has a cost of production of 4 cents per kilowatt hour.

Fossil fuels, in particular coal are very destructive to the environment. Fossil fuels not only release green house gases to the atmosphere, but also in the case of coal which is generally contaminated with radioctive Uranium and Thorium causes radioactive contamination as well..

Essentially coal burning also causes radioctive contamination of the area around the power plant where it is burned, but also the ash left over is essentially radioactive waste.

Wind power is vastly superior to power generated by fossil fuels.

Wind power is economically competitive with fossil fuels and does not cause the pollution and greenhouse gases that burning fossil fuels causes.

Answer 2

Absolutely - wind power is a very underutilized renewable resource. We'll never run out of wind power! In fact technology has been developed such that we'll be able to install offshore wind farms and get energy from strong oceanic winds. That way they're out of sight, out of mind, but sending us power.

The only cons from wind power are that windmills can be a little noisy, they have some effect on wildlife, and they're not cheap. However, as windmill technology improves, it will become cost competetive with fossil fuels. The biggest con is that they only produce power when it's windy, which isn't necessarily when power is in greatest demand.

The pros are that we never have to worry about running out of wind. It's absolutely clean - no greenhouse or any other emissions. It reduces our dependency on foreign oil, fossil fuels in general, and nuclear power. You can put a wind farm out in the middle of nowhere, wherever there's a consistent wind, or out at sea as I mentioned. The more locations you have windmills, the more consistently they'll produce power (because if it's not windy in one area, it might be windy in another).

We should be investing a lot of money in this underutilized natural power source.

Answer 3

ANY power that doesn't pollute the atmosphere is worthwhile. The cost is irrelevant. The public are all for "Renewable" but the present government seem to have already decided to go nuclear. What has just happened in japan will make no difference because the nuclear lobby is stronger than individual renewable schemes. The same with waste, they're afraid of the big supermarkets.

Answer 4

Renewable resources are needed, if for no other reason than the reduction of pollution. The only problem with individual turbines or solar panels that I have found are the need for deep cycle batteries for storing the power created.

The initial costs for an off grid or grid tie system will pay for itself fairly quickly provided that you live in the proper climate for the system. If you can make the lifestye changes necessary for living off-grid, you could probably get by without a large quantity of batteries.

Answer 5

Yes!!

Even though I'm more of a solar fan myself, wind power does have a lot of benefits. It's clean. It's plentiful. It's never ending. And if done correctly, will pay for itself. The only real con (and the birds running into the blades doesn't count... a higher percentage more get hit by planes than by windmills every year) is they're appearance. My take is, if we can put up with cell phone towers, why not mind turbines? I guess it's more of a personal preference thing though...

Answer 6

Wind is one of the cleanest sources of electricity. We as humans are going to have to find new sources of energy as nuclear and fossil fuels are either too dangerous, expensive or poisonous to continue using (global warming, pollution, acid rain etc etc.) The boffs are working on much cleaner sources of energy and I believe that hydro, wind and solar power will feature strongly in the future. I understand that serious work is also being done on energy from the waves (sea) and lightning. The conservationists are waiting in anticipation.

Answer 7

Definately - fossil fuels are not an indefinate supply. Build a lot of wind farms out in the North sea and we will all get incredibly cheap power bills. This in turn will cut the cost of crude oil as the demand will lower. Petrol prices should come down, along with utility bills, rail fare etc etc Win win all round....

Answer 8

we live opposite one of those ugly pilons and a rubbish tip.
We are praying that someone might come along and suggest that we can get rid and get one of those nice white windmills...
Bliss!!
Does anyone know where they are being done in the UK? we tried looking on eon-uk site to no avail... will have to take a proper look another day

I think that the wind power are always gonna look nicer than the metal pilons, and that will make people feel better in themselves, I spoz that goes a long way... making people feel less grumpy bout life has to be some improvement...

However as with everything, there are those that moan... they want to try living over the road from a pilon and hearing the noise coming from it when its raining etc..... and then answer ya question lol

Answer 9

Yes, they are needed.

However, renewable sources of energy can not provide the amount of energy we use at present.

We must cut down on the energy we use, to level out the available energy from renewable sources.

We can not take out more than we put in, look at your last bank statement, energy works in the same way.

We have been blessed with plenty natural resources, but we are using these up faster than they are replaced. We need to change our lifestyle, and think to future generations.

The bottom line is, would you like your grandchildren to die at a very young age because you wanted to drive a gas guzzler car, and use every electrical gadget that was available ?

I think not. Lets work together on reducing the amount of energy we use, together, on the global scale, we can ensure the future of our children, and their well being.

They will thank us for it, trust me.

Answer 10

The wife is not impressed with my "windpower"

But, yes, we do need natural sustainable power sources for the future. In the past 200 years we,ve raped this planet of resources it took millions of years to create. At some point, we have to pay.....