Reliability Questioned

Filed in archive Wind on September 11, 2006

Wind is in the truest sense of the word, renewable. It is available all over, its intensity is neither affected by oil prices nor political affairs, it does not emit any harmful Green House Gas, and it is free and effective. However, concerns about its reliability have always been asked, especially by wind detractors.

Wind turbines require between ten to twenty five miles per hour winds to produce electricity. If it does not have that, wind turbines will simply turn lazily. Of course the obvious answer is selecting the site that would have sufficient wind before putting up the turbines. In fact, in the development phase of any wind farm, significant time and resources are put in into the research that goes into finding if the site is suitable for wind power generation.

The current supply of power from wind in the US is only 0.5% but experts believe that this would increase to 6 or 10% of the country's total requirement. Many companies are latching on to the demand for wind power in the US. Siemens said it plans to open a factory in iowa to make wind turbines, the first investment of its kind made by Siemens in the US. GE has also made a similarly aggressive forecast, supporting its campaign of improving its position in the US as a wind turbine manufacturer.

This month, the US has installed around 10,000 megawatts of wind turbine capacity, which is enough to power 2.0 million homes. The American Wind Energy Association projects that by the end of next year, that number will reach 15,000 megawatts for 3.8 million typical American homes. Can that many people be wrong about reliability?