Wind farms are clusters of wind generators that produce electricity, often utilizing a new, large-scale turbine technology that requires far less wind than did their early predecessors. Unlike conventional coal- or dam-driven power plants, these wind plants tend to be owned by private businesses (like Boone Pickens), not public utilities, that then sell their electricity back to electric utilities for distribution. And the wind works is catching on around the country. By 2006, 28 different states had functioning wind machines with Texas, California, Iowa, Minnesota and Oklahoma leading the way. Texas alone comprises the world’s sixth-biggest wind energy market. It’s now a proven technology that’s here to stay. The largest project, located in Horse Hollow Wind Energy Center, is spread over 47,000 acres in Taylor and Nolan county, Texas and has 421 wind turbines that generate enough electricity to power 220,000 homes (735.5 megawatts). There are now many sources of information for this industry, and growing interest across the world map.
Modern wind technology offers this major new source of clean, renewable power. The most serious environmental drawbacks to wind machines are their negative impact on wild bird populations and their negative visual impact on the landscape. For some, the large blades of windmills on the horizon are an eyesore, while for others, conventional power plants are the eyesore. Obviously, the advantage of a wind farm is that it provides relatively low cost energy from a natural resource, wind. But it requires more than simply building a windmill in a windy place: wind speed and frequency are important placement requirements. Generally, wind speed increases with altitude and open space, i.e., with few windbreaks, so good candidates for wind plants are open plains, shorelines and mountain gaps; however, the shoreline market has been difficult to develop because of residential restrictions.
Let’s look at recent history, production facts and future projections. Presently, the U.S. leads the world in installed wind capacity and new turbine installations with GE Energy, the largest supplier of wind turbines in the U.S., accounting for 43 percent of all new wind power capacity installed in the country last year. The nation’s total annual capacity now stands at 25,300 megawatts, enough electricity to power 7.5 million homes. Recently, President Obama set a goal of doubling wind energy production in three years, while the Department of Energy forecasts wind energy has the potential to generate 20 percent of the countries electricity needs by 2030. To put this in perspective, the wind industry supplied 1.25 percent of the U.S.’s electricity needs in 2008.
The wave of the future is wind farms outfitted with bigger turbines that can capture low speed winds and produce more megawatts off a given piece of land. This direction has evolved: 18 yd rotors produced 100KW (1985); 44 yd rotors produced 550KW (1996); 78 yd rotors produced 1,650KW (2000); and 110 yd rotors produced 2,500KW (2009). Note, it takes 3.3KW annually per home.