Tilting toward windmills

Emerging from the shadow of an energy crisis in the 1970s, a wind-power industry flourished briefly in the US. Part of an ambitious US government program to support research and development on renewable energy sources, the Department of Energy and the National Aeronautic and Space Agency sponsored the construction of a wide variety of large wind turbines-most accompanied by exaggerated claims by the promoters. But by the 1980s, US interest in wind power almost disappeared due to a drop in world oil prices, the Reagan administrations curtailment of funding, and the disappointing results of the initial wind turbines. The problems with the initial wind turbines was overly optimistic economic projections, siting snags, difficulties connecting wind-generated electricity to utility power grids. Today, however the wind farms in California are a highly productive, inexpensive source of energy. The author presents arguments dispelling the following four widely-believed myths about wind energy: (1) Wind power is not a significant energy source; (2) Wind-generated electricity is expensive and unreliable; (3) New and improved machine designs are needed to make wind power feasible; and (4) The technology is impractical for use by utilities because of problems connecting wind machines to the electricity grid, and because wind itself is intermittent. A study at Battelle Pacific Northwest Lab estimates that turbine technology could supply 20% of the country's electrical needs. Investor-owned wind-power plants in California generate electricity at a rate ranging from 4.7 to 7.2 cents per kilowatt-hour. The reality is that wind-produced electricity is now less expensive that electricity produced by conventional fossil- or nuclear-powered generating plants in many parts of the world. And unlike some of the proposed renewable electric-power sources like photovoltaics, wind power's future is not dependent on further breakthroughs in engineering or materials technology