Advantages of Wind

Energy
- The wind is free and with modern technology it can be captured efficiently.
- Once the wind turbine is built the energy it produces foes not cause greenhouse gases or other
pollutants.
- Although wind turbines can be very tall each takes up only a small plot of land. This means that the
land below can still be used. This is especially the case in agricultural areas as farming can still
continue.
- Many people find wind farms an interesting feature of the landscape.
- Remote areas that are not connected to the electricity power grid can use wind turbines to produce
their own supply.
- Wind turbines have a role to play in both the developed and third world.
- Wind turbines are available in a range of sizes, which means a vast range of people, and businesses
can use them. Single households to small towns and villages can make good use of range of wind
turbines available today.

What is Wind
Energy?
Wind power captures the natural wind in
our atmosphere and converts it into
mechanical energy then electricity.
Todays wind turbine is a highly evolved
version of a windmill, which people used
in the past.
Most wind turbines have three blades and
sit atop a steel tubular tower, and they
range in size from 80-foot-tall turbines
that can power a single home to utility-
scale turbines that are over 260 feet tall
and power hundreds of homes.
WIND ENERGY

Wind Production
Disadvantages of Wind
Energy
- The strength of the wind is not constant and it
varies from zero to storm force. This means
that wind turbines do not produce the same
amount of electricity all the time. There will
be times when they produce no electricity at
all.
- Many people feel that the countryside
should be left untouched, without these large
structures being built. The landscape should be left
in its natural form for everyone to enjoy.
- Wind turbines are noisy. Each one can generate
the same level of noise as a family car travelling at
70 mph.
- Many people see large wind turbines as unsightly
structures and not pleasant or interesting to look
at. They disfigure the countryside and are generally
ugly.
- When wind turbines are being manufactured
some pollution is produced. Therefore wind power
does produce some pollution.
- Large wind farms are needed to provide entire
communities with enough electricity capacity.
- In 2012, wind turbines in the United States generated about 3% of total
U.S. electricity generation. Although this is a small share of the countrys
total electricity production, it was equal to the annual electricity use of
about 12 million households.
- The amount of electricity generated from wind has grown significantly in
recent years. Generation from wind in the United States increased from
about 6 billion kilowatt-hours in 2000 to about 140 billion kilowatt-hours
in 2012.
- New technologies have decreased the cost of producing electricity from
wind, and growth in wind power has been encouraged by tax breaks for
renewable energy and green pricing programs. Many utilities around the
country offer green pricing options that allow customers the choice to pay
more for electricity that comes from renewable sources to support new
technologies


Barriers
Barrier one is tradition. Utilities are simply used to operating a grid in a 20th century model, where large-scale power plants are connected in a
top-down, one-way grid to power consumers. Policies that have allowed for on-site solar and wind generation, for consumers to be instead
producers, have nibbled at the margins of this tradition. Its only in the past year that utilities have realized how low-cost solar power can
fundamentally up-end their entire business model. And the response has often been to entrench.
A second barrier facing community-based renewable energy is capital upfront cash to buy a solar array or wind turbine. And the biggest
cause is securities law and regulations, intended to prevent fraud like perpetrated by Bernie Madoff and others that makes pooling capital very
difficult for groups of interested local power investors. The federal or state rules often come with high compliance costs or significant
limitations that hinder most efforts to raise community capital.
A third barrier is cash flow. American renewable energy policy is a byzantine array of tax incentives, rebates, and bill credits that can challenge
a CPA. Figuring out how to pool all these revenue streams together to make a project with reasonable payback is a significant challenge.
A fourth barrier is legal, because of the mis-match between federal renewable energy incentives paid through the tax code and the non-taxable
status of many of the logical entities for organizing community renewable energy projects. Want to use a city, county, cooperative, or non-profit
structure for your community solar project? Then you may have to forgo the 30% federal tax credit. A level playing field for energy
cooperatives is a major reason the Germans have such high levels of local ownership of their 63,000 MW renewable energy economy.
Finally, utilities themselves (as implied in #1) have acted as barriers to more community-based renewable energy. In particular, policies like the
15% Rule have set artificially (and arbitrarily) low limits on distributed generation under the guise of system safety.
The good news is that the barriers are being broken. Tradition has been tossed as utilities have had to grapple with state policies encouraging
distributed generation and solar power and others have embraced pro-active measures to accommodate more local renewable energy.
Crowdfunding opportunities like those offered by Mosaic are giving people an unprecedented opportunity to pool their money to go renewable.
The falling cost of solar is rapidly making incentives unimportant in many areas, reducing the problems caused by half baked, tax-based federal
policy.
Most importantly, utilities, regulators, and policy makers are recognizing that the 20th century model of concentrated power and capital doesnt
serve a distributed, 21st century grid. And as that aging paradigm crumbles, community renewable energy will grow up through the cracks.


Read more at http://cleantechnica.com/2013/09/10/5-barriers-to-and-solutions-for-community-renewable-energy/#XIefMo9q6xoQiFv7.99

Wind: A clean source of energy
Wind is a clean source of energy, and overall, the use of wind for energy has fewer environmental impacts than
using many other energy sources. Wind turbines (often called windmills) do not release emissions that pollute the
air or water (with rare exceptions), and they do not require water for cooling. They may also reduce the amount
of electricity generated from fossil fuels and therefore reduce the amount of air pollution, carbon dioxide
emissions, and water use of fossil fuel power plants.

A wind turbine has a small physical footprint relative to the amount of electricity it can produce. Many wind
projects, sometimes called wind farms, are located on farm, grazing, and forest land. The extra income from the
turbines may allow farmers and ranchers to stay in business and keep their property from being developed for
other uses. For example, wind power projects have been proposed as alternatives to mountain top removal coal
mining projects in the Appalachian mountains of the United States. Offshore wind turbines on lakes or the ocean
may have smaller environmental impacts than turbines on land.




http://www.technologystudent.com/energy1/wind8.htm
http://ei.lehigh.edu/learners/energy/readings/wind.pdf
http://www.eia.gov/kids/energy.cfm?page=wind_home-basics-k.cfm
http://cleantechnica.com/2013/09/10/5-barriers-to-and-solutions-for-community-renewable-energy/