Nature's Green Remedy

Global warming, the increased threat of pollution and rising oil prices are triggering an upswing of environmental awareness causing many folks to think about doing more to save our planet. Continuing use of fossil fuels to meet all our energy demands is the leading contributor to the ultimate degradation of the environment all around us. Renewable energy alternatives like wind farms are believed to be part of the answer to this problem but the pros and cons of wind energy need to be assessed.

By making an informed decision to focus more on using green energy solutions as opposed to conventional fuel resources, we can lower both our carbon emissions as well as other environmental pollutants. Over the last few years, one solution to advance our move to more green energy solutions is occurring through the increased use of electricity generated from utilities operating wind farms.

Advantages of Using Renewable Energy: Wind Power

Generating electricity using wind turbines is a growing technology becoming more readily available both for the large scale utility wind farms as well as through the growing use of domestic wind turbines for the homeowner. In both cases, construction of the wind turbines has minimal environmental pollution and significantly reduces pollution we release to the environment.

Like anything else in life, pros and cons of wind energy exist and are sometimes misunderstood. It should be obvious that there are distinct benefits to harnessing an ever-present natural process like the wind to generate electricity since it is both free and blows frequently in many regions of the World.

In many areas of the mid-western United States, wind farm projects have been increasing in both number and scope since the turn of century. Rockport, Missouri is touted as being America’s first “wind powered” town and it became reliant on its four turbine wind farm a few years back as more and more wind farm projects arise in northern Missouri. In addition to the larger scale wind energy projects, a growing homes using domestic wind turbines to help offset their energy demand from the commercial power grid.

Beyond the incentive of rising oil prices, advances in wind turbine technology such as greater generation efficiency, minimizing ambient noise levels, lowering impact to flying animals and increasing overall visual aesthetics have greatly  in the deployment and acceptance of wind farm projects. Though cost used to be one of the main deterrents of wind power projects, advancements on the technological side combined with governmental incentive programs is another factor helping grow wind power expansion.

On the “Con” side of the wind power assessment, the main issue pertains to other natural conditions; those times when the wind doesn’t blow or when wind speeds are so high, they exceed the operational parameters for the turbines.

Fortunately all large-scale and most domestic wind turbine projects are not constructed completely “off-grid” but are still linked to the regional electric grid. This enables the owner of the wind turbine or turbines to provide electricity to the grid when too much is generated and re-purchase it from the grid when turbine generation is inadequate to fulfill needs.

If you stop and consider the different pros and cons of wind energy, along with our need for new green energy solutions, we believe it is definitely time to make as much as electricity as possible where and when the wind blows…