7 Pros and Cons of Wind Energy

Interesting. My wife is very interested and intrigued by wind energy CW5 Jack Cardwell

COL Mikel J. Burroughs Maj Marty Hogan SGT John " Mac " McConnell LTC Stephen F. CW5 Jack Cardwell TSgt David L. Cpl (Join to see) Maj William W. 'Bill' Price CPL Dave Hoover SPC Douglas Bolton LTC Greg Henning Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. Alan K. Lt Col Charlie Brown PO3 Phyllis Maynard PO2 Kevin Parker SP5 Mark Kuzinski PO1 John Johnson Sgt (Join to see) PVT Mark Zehner

You know you're in for a wild ride when the article opens with a statement like... "Like solar energy, wind energy is the fastest growing energy source in the world..." So which is it? Which is the fastest growing energy source in the world: Wind or Solar? Or, are they tied for first? Or, is it neither? With India and China building coal fired plants to produce electrical energy at an alarming rate, and searching the world for high energy coal to fire them, I'd be willing to bet that coal far and away outstrips both solar and wind combined. But, hey, let's not quibble. Consider this gem: "Wind doesn’t cost anything and therefore operational costs are close to zero once a turbine starts running." Was the wind turbine built without cost? Of course not. Thus, the author seems to have zero understanding of basic economics, at least the part about amortization and depreciation. Sure, the wind is free. No argument there. However, will the wind turbine ever produce electricity in value equal to it's original cost. It seems doubtful when you consider that no one wind farm could exist without government subsidies. Well, if the author is out of his depth he can always quote an "expert" ("X" - and unknown quantity and "spurt" - a drip under pressure) THE FUEL IN THE EARTH WILL BE EXHAUSTED IN A THOUSAND OR MORE YEARS, AND ITS MINERAL WEALTH, BUT MAN WILL FIND SUBSTITUTES FOR THESE IN THE WINDS, THE WAVES, THE SUN’S HEAT, AND SO FORTH. ~ JOHN BURROUGHS" (In all upper case letters no less - must be authoritative) If puts me in mind of men who stood on street corners with sandwich boards predicting that the world was about to end. No matter how many times they (and other experts - remember the end of the Mayan Calendar) that they were wrong, they can always find a cult of idiots of believe them. If you check back, you'll find that there have been many predictions that we were running out of energy (had run out in some scenarios), but here we still are... I'd love to comment on each of the seven points (they are ripe with possibility) but I'm sure that few have made it even this far and I have more important things to do with my life

I'm no engineer. I think the ones that look like vertical egg beaters would be better, no weight hanging on a spindle and don't have to be turned into the wind.