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| Along the road. Photo by Craig Lifton |
The world’s fossil
fuels, the very oil we use four our energy, heat, gas for our vehicles, is dwindling
rapidly. Just using it creates the very problem that is killing our earth with
the release of greenhouse gasses. As the use of oil as a fossil fuel reaches
appoint of no return, where the limited world supplies start to dry up, the
world moves to find replacements. Alternate sources of energy are needed;
sources that are renewable are the preferred way. If the world is to learn from
the mistakes of the past so the same errors are not made then these new power
sources need to be vetted to insure they are safe for our world and our health.
Wind powered turbines are the epitome of renewable energy and even after all of
the arguments from the critiques, wind power is a green power above many other
sources.
According to Heiman
and Solomon (2004) current electric generation creates more than 41% of the
carbon dioxide, a quarter of the Nitrogen Oxide, and two thirds of sulfur
dioxide, for energy use. This much CO2 is a large contributor to the
greenhouse gas build up and global warming. The need to find a greener source
of energy, one that is renewable is of international concern. Renewable energy
is energy that comes from a source that replenishes itself. These sources are;
biomass, wind, geothermal, hydroelectric and solar power.
Wind power is not new
to humans. Jackson (1999) points out that wind power has been used to grind
grain or pump water. A Charles Brush in the 1890’s developed a 12,000-watt
“wind-generator”. In the 1930’s farmers
owned power generating wind mills.
The Public Utility
Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA) of 1978 was the beginning of the push towards
renewable and other form of energy with a start in California with a large footprint
worldwide until Europe and Japan became involved.
Wind turbines are
large mechanical devices that use the kinetic energy derived from the blowing
wind, and through the turning in creates electricity, according to Turk and
Bensel (2011). The capabilities of these wind turbines has increased through
technology with a 25 percent increase every year for the last 10 years.
A collection of wind
turbines, or wind farms are where most of the electricity is generated, can be
found on wide, flat terrains where a constant wind can be located. There has
been a increase in the growth of new wind farms here in the United States,
where a tax credit can be earned by the owners at a rate of 1.9 cents per
kilowatt an hour production.
In 2005 the worldwide capability was
generating more than 60,000 Mega Watts (MW). By 2010 the pace of the capability of wind
turbines worldwide has now grown to almost 200,000 megawatts. European
countries has lead the way in use of wind power with 1,700 MW in 1994 to more
than 40,000 MW in 2005. Germany is able to generate 18,000 MW, Spain 10,000,
Denmark 3,000 MW, and 1,000 MW from the countries of Great Britain,
Netherlands, Italy, and Portugal.
On the average a wind turbine is
capable of producing 4 to 6 MW due to growing size and more efficient turbines.
This has made wind powered electricity one of the cheapest forms of electricity
with a four to seven cent cost per kilowatt-hour of electricity.
A question brought about by the opponents
of renewable energy like wind power is why do we need it. According to Turk and
Bensel (2011), oil production is coming to a peek. The world uses 80 million
barrels of oil daily. The world will need to use 121 million barrels a day by
2030.
Just the extraction of fossil fuels has
a side effect of water and air pollution. The use of the fossil fuels produces
carbon dioxide pollution to our atmosphere, which has an effect on green house
gas, which in turn effects global warming.
Another true danger of the current
fossil fuels is that the price of oil are getting higher and higher. Just the
cost to convert the carbon-based fuels into the liquid fuels that we use is
highly expensive.
There is also strategic threat against
our country from oil. Heiman and Solomon identify the watershed event that when
Egypt and Syria attacked Israel in 1973, the Arab members of the Organization
of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) instituted an embargo against America
for its support of Israel.
Pasqualetti (2000) points out that
there is complaint about the visual aspect of wind farms and how they create a
eye sore, but at the same time wind power doesn’t flood canyons, need or use
water, contaminate soil, and in no way do wind turbines leave a permanent mark
or any dangerous waste. AN installation of wind farms can be removed as fast as
they are installed.
As Pasqualetti mentions, right now
fossil and nuclear fuels still are accountable for 85 to 90 percent of our
electricity today. The procedures to acquire these resources take up and damage
land and any water connected with it. Wind turbines just use land space.
Pasqualetti says that North Dakota’s
wind farms supply 36 percent of the lower forty eight states, which means that
.6 percent of the land in the United States, or 50,000 Km2 could be
used to supply 20 percent of our countries electricity demand. This may seam to
be a large amount of land, but in truth only 5 percent of that land will really
be need while the rest can still be used for things like grazing. Some of the
land will still be used for the turbines, electrical equipment and access
roads.
Land being used for coal plants cannot
be used for anything else according to Pasqualetti, only 1 to 5 percent of land
where a wind turbine is actually used.
The land being used
can earn the owners 2-10 percent of gross revenues annually from the wind
turbines. Pasqualetti describes an example where a 20 MW plant could produce a
gross revenue of $2,190,000. If the landowner could earn 2 percent of the gross,
this would add up to $43,8000. This would be an average income of $5,000 per
hectare of land.
Wind powers visual damage is another
chief complaint. This is from the public’s feelings towards the visual
appearance of the wind farms on the landscape. People do not like to see major
changes to the land where a fundamental change has occurred. The public see
these turbines as a change or distraction from the big sky’s of the land most
of these wind farms are located.
With the visual consideration a large
concern towards wind power, Gipe (1993) identified that it originates from
people’s need for a visual “tidiness”, a order to the chaos of our world. Most
of the complaints to the California wind farm were phrased by “disorder,
disarray and clutter”. The spinning blades of the turbines also brake up the
stillness of most landscapes, and even at a distance the human eye can detect
movement.
The visual impact can be simply
corrected through actions like uniformity of the turbines and their blades.
Through similar shapes and functions can help with the visual impact. Gipe also
recommends that the turbines be installed in distinct visual units and in
uniform density. Visual order can be assisted through the geometrical arrays of
rows.
Wind power is not new, it has slowly
moved through our land since the Middle Ages. American farms before World War
II used individually built windmills to pump water and help with electricity. Our world is using and using way to much of
our dwindling supply of fossil fuels that are not renewable. These fuels are
only growing in price and not only economically is this hurting us but there is
also a strategic threat involved in these fuels. The production and the use of
fossil fuels are hurting our land, water and air. A growing problem with green
house gas can be linked to fossil fuels.
Even though wind power is not a hundred
percent replacement of fossil fuels it will take a large chunk out of our
dependency from things like oil and coal consumption. If the major problems
connected with wind turbines and wind farms are aesthetic then true threats
against our environment do not come from this renewable source of energy. Our
world is hurt, the fossil fuels we are burning to heat our homes, to move our
cars, is tainting the air we breathe, damaging our lands and poisoning the water
we breath. Wind turbines are making things hard to look at and even that
problem is easy to correct. Even though
its not the solution to our energy problem, wind is not adding to it. Wind
energy, a true green source of power.
References
Clean Energy,
retrieved on 23 July 2012 from
http://www.epa.gov/cleanenergy/energy-and-you/affect/nuclear.html
Heiman,
M. and Solomon, B. 1 (Mar., 2004), Power to the People: Electric Utility
Restructuring and the Commitment to Renewable Energy Annals of the
Association of American Geographers ,
Vol. 94, No. pp. 94-116 Published by: Taylor & Francis,
Ltd. On behalf of the Association of
American Geographers Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3694070
Turk, J., & Bensel, T.
(2011). Contemporary environmental issues. San Diego, CA:
Bridgepoint
Education, Inc.(https://content.ashford.edu/books/AUSCI207.10.1)
Pasqualetti,
M., (Jul., 2000), Morality, Space, and the Power of Wind-Energy Landscapes
Geographical Review , Vol. 90, No. 3 pp. 381-394 Published by: American Geographical
Society Article
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3250859
Gipe, P., (1993), The
Wind Industry's Experience with Aesthetic Criticism
Leonardo , Vol. 26, No. 3 pp.
243-248 Published by: The MIT Press Article Stable URL:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/1575818
Jackson, D. (Feb.,
1999), Wind Energy in America: A
History by Robert W.
Righter Review by:
The American Historical Review , Vol. 104, No. 1 pp. 195-196
Article Stable URL:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/2650243
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