The pros and cons of wind energy

Hello all peoples!

In this post, i will be investigating the pros and cons of wind energy in both Denmark and Singapore as well as the reasons behind it and a comparison.

Firstly, the pros and cons of the use of wind energy in Denmark because of the people of denmark’s opinion on Wind energy in their country. Afterall, the people are the one who have to put up with it! Hey, hear it from the horses’ mouth!

Note: Public attitude surveys of wind power are of a very varied quality.

Renewable energy sources have more credibility with the public than non-renewables such as fossil fuels and nuclear power. In the USA a national opinion survey (Breglio, 1995) showed that 42 % of the Americans believe that renewable energy sources like solar, wind, geothermal, biofuels, and hydroelectric should be the highest priority for continued federal funding of energy research and development. Fossil fuels and nuclear energy, which are the energy sources generating the most energy in the USA come in last by 7 and 9 per cent.

In Denmark the same questions were posed (Holdningsundersøgelse, 1993). Here the attitude towards renewable energy sources was also positive. A representative group of Danes were asked if renewables should have a higher priority in national energy policy. According to this questionnaire four out of five Danes think that renewable energy sources should have a higher priority. Only 9 per cent disagree.

There is no doubt that renewable energy today is considered a full grown source of energy generation. Behind the term renewable energy is however a variety of different generation techniques. It is therefore interesting to investigate whether wind energy in particular also enjoys broad public support. A Canadian questionnaire asked a representative group of Canadians if they would like to see their provincial power utility give a high priority to wind generated electricity in their province (Omnibus Report, 1995). According to this survey 79 per cent of the Canadians believe that wind generated electricity should have a high utility priority in Canada. The same tendency can be seen in the Danish survey (Holdningsundersøgelse, 1993).

The Danes were asked if Denmark should aim for a higher utilisation of wind power. 82 per cent of the population was in favour of more wind power. A survey made in the Netherlands showed the same pattern. 80% of the Dutch population were in favour of wind energy, 5% opposed it, and 15% were neutral (Gipe, 1995). The same result were found in the UK (Simon, 1996). From 1990 to 1996 thirteen research studies have been made in the UK and across surveys also eight out of ten supports wind power. So, in general both renewable energy and wind power in particular is vested with more credibility than non-renewables such as fossil fuels and nuclear power.

The acceptance of spinning turbines is higher than that of idle ones not generating power, shows both American and Swedish studies. A paper (Wolsink and Sprengers, 1993) investigating the noise problem in Denmark, the Netherlands, and Germany shows, that the annoyance caused by wind turbine noise affects very few people and the level of annoyance is hardly related to the actual sound level of specific turbines.

Instead the annoyance is related to other causes such as negative feeling towards the wind turbines. The Danish survey showed, that those in favour of renewables and wind power in general are more positive about local turbines, they find them less noisy and less intrusive to the landscape (Gipe, 1995).

Even though it seems that the individual perception of noise and visual impact is determined by other factors than the actual noise level and the number of turbines erected, this does not mean, that noise problems and visual effects should be treated superficially.

The Denmark’s Nay sayer:

-renewable energy cannot solve our energy problems

-wind turbines are unreliable and dependent on the wind

-wind energy is expensive

-wind turbines spoil the scenery

-wind turbines are noisy

The Denmark’s yes-sayer

 -renewable energy is very much an alternative to other energy sources

-the climate change theory must be taken seriously

-wind energy is limitless unlike fossil fuels

-wind energy is none polluting

-wind energy is safe

The distance to the nearest turbine has no effect on people’s attitudes towards wind turbines in general. This indicates that people living close to wind turbines do not consider noise and visual impact to be significant problems. As a matter of fact people living closer to the nearest wind turbine than 500 meters tend to be more positive about wind turbines than people sited further away from the turbines.

Much the same pattern was identified when attitudes towards wind turbines in general were cross tabulated with the number of visible turbines from the residence of the respondents. Again, no clear pattern could be detected. But people who could see between 20 and 29 turbines tended to be more positive about wind energy than people being able to see only a smaller number of turbines. Again, this indicates that the number of actual wind turbines in the local environment has no negative influence on people’s attitude towards wind energy. In Denmark there is even a tradition for wind co-operatives, where a group of people share a wind power plant.

http://www.windpower.org/media(485,1033)/public_attitudes_towards_wind_power.pdf

Some general pros and cons of use of wind energy in Denmark.

1) It takes up very little space on their land area.

The proposed annual average energy consumption of 19 gigawatts by the year 2050 corresponds to solar energy collecting panels (in use only 50 percent of the time) with an area of roughly 180 square kilometers and a windmill swept area of about 150 square kilometers. These (vertical) areas constitute less than 1 percent of the total land area.

2) It is economically feasible.

The project has been shown to be economically feasible according to estimates of the cost of various alternatives during the 25-year depreciation period adopted. However, the initial cost per energy unit produced is higher than that for most of the alternatives, so that action is not expected to be taken immediately as a result of purely private initiative. In a public economic evaluation, other factors must be considered in addition to the cost of energy per kilowatt-hour.

3) Increases employment rate

At present, Denmark has over 10 percent of its labor force out of employment and a substantial deficit on its balance of payments, so that an early start on the solar and wind energy project, based on national industry, would have additional payoffs compared with energy systems based on imported technology or imported fuels. Several factories that are now being closed down as a result of the economic crisis could be adapted to the production of parts for solar or wind power systems, and the building industry, badly hit by unemployment, would receive legitimate work.

4) Provide a better alternative than fossil fuels like coal.

Last year, wind driven turbines produced less than 0.1 percent of America’s electricity supply -compared to 52 percent generated from coal, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. One reason that wind energy has lagged so far behind is the perception is that wind farms are more expensive to build and operate than coal fired power plants.

Also, compared to Denmark and Singapore: Wind turbines are usually designed to operate at a minimal wind speed in order to generate electricity. Singapore does not have abundant winds except near coastal areas or at some off-shore islands. This could reduce the performance of wind turbines and hence the viability of wind as a renewable resource for Singapore.

Unlike Denmark, Singapore has too little wind energy to be converted into energy we can actually use daily. It can only provide for only a very little portion of Singapore’s energy that is being used up.

Another factor is the price of setting up a wind turbine in SIngapore. although it can be used for quite a long time, but the energy it generates from the limited amount of wind in Singapore is simply not worth the cost of building the turbines. Moreover, Denmark has a larger amount of land than Singapore, so there is space for many wind turbines. Singapore has very scarce land and the cost of the land and turbines is very expensive and is not as feasible as in Denmark.

The above are probably some of the reasons why Singapore has not set up a wind turbine to generate electricity for the country.

And finally, a general table.

Pros

	Safe
	Inexhaustible
	Free

Cons

	Wind speed is variable and unreliable
	Wind farms are typically located in high, exposed, rural locations, where they can be seen as eyesores
	Often noisy, although modern turbines are quieter than their predecessors
	Wildlife habitats can be disrupted and there is a risk of birds getting caught in the blades
	Off-shore wind farms go some way to solving these problems, but they are expensive to build and maintain. It is cheaper to put more coal into an existing power station than to build a new wind farm

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/189/4199/255

http://www.wind-power.net/cheaperthancoal.htm

http://www.ieee.org/web/emergingtech/discourses/windpower/overview.html

Cynthia:)