Would you object to a wind farm near you, even if it was offshore?
Wind Power
There was virtually no wind power generation of any scale in 1970, but there were about 24,000 megawatts (MW) world wide by 2002 - equivalent to around 24 fossil or nuclear power plants - and the capacity is growing fast. Because of the variability of the wind, wind farms produce on average 35% of their full power rating compared to 70% for a conventional plant, so twice as many wind farms are needed.
The larger the wind turbine, the better, as the power output is proportional to the square of the blade length. It is also well worth placing them where the wind is strong, such as a windy uphill site, as the power in the wind is proportional to the cube of the wind speed.
On problem with siting wind farms is the NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) effect. Nobody wants the noise or the sight of them spoiling the view, or for the values of their houses to be lowered. Siting them some distance out to sea would prevent this. More modern turbines tend to be quieter. Wind farms should also avoid major bird migration routes, though birds do appear more likely to hit stationery objects such as power grid cables than moving objects like blades. Care also needs to be taken to minimise damage to the ecosystem when turbines are erected.
Another consideration when building wind farms is who will construct them and run them. At the moment expertise is concentrated in a few countries. Once they are up and running there is little benefit in the form of jobs to local communities.
Wind power has the benefits that the wind is free and renewable, and it produces no pollution (other than noise pollution) when it runs (though there are some during construction), The down side is that the wind is variable, so it will always need to be coupled with one or more other means of power generation that can compensate. Unlike solar power, it does at least work on the cloudiest of days and at night.
Costs have dropped as technology has developed, but it is more expensive to put up wind farms at sea than on land, as there needs to be an undersea cable to bring the power to land. With the cost of oil likely to rise, however, it should become economic in comparison.
China Eyes Turbines at Sea to Boost Wind Power
China is looking to vary its sources of energy and to reduce its dependence on coal. One possibility is to install wind turbines offshore, where they would not be competing with agricultural and other uses for land. They would be constructed in the area with the largest demand for electricity, in the East. Windy energy currently costs about twice coal energy in China.
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