Wind Energy
ATTENTION: You are using a browser that is out of date and not supported. Please note that the page may not display properly. It is recommended that you upgrade your browser to its most recent version.
At a glance |
Wind energy is now the fastest growing electricity generation option worldwide. Technical advances have increased reliability and driven down costs dramatically over the past thirty years. As a result of these improvements and new market incentives, an average growth rate in generation capacity of about 30 per cent per year has been maintained since 1990. So far, virtually all of this growth has been in utility-scale wind farms. The average capacity of these large turbines is of the order of 1 MW. Canada's wind energy capacity in many wind farms across the country is now over 1500 MW and growing. www.canwea.ca
From a historical point of view, it is important to remember that windmills date back to as early as 2000 B.C. in ancient Babylon and were being used to grind grain some 1,000-1,400 years ago. In the 1930's, before large-scale rural electrification, some 600,000 windmills were producing electricity and pumping water on farms across the U.S. and Canada. Interest in wind energy re-emerged after the Oil Crisis of 1973. Since then, the growth in capacity worldwide has been phenomenal.
Similar to large wind systems used for electrical generation, many small turbines have evolved technologically and have become increasingly reliable while also decreasing in cost. This progress however has been less pronounced and more "patchy" than for large wind. As a result, there have been few dramatic technological changes to the small wind market as a whole over the past 10 or even 20 years: most of the current market leaders are well-established turbine designs that have been refined over the years rather than redesigned from scratch.
Farmers and other rural land owners can exploit wind energy in several ways:
- By contracting with wind farm operators in the installation of large wind turbines and receiving rent for use of their property
- By operating a small wind system for their own needs - perhaps in conjunction with a hybrid system
- By installing alone or in cooperation with other farmers medium size machines in the range of 250-500 kW, tied to the grid and operating them under the net billing option wherever the local utility allows
As a rule of thumb, the larger the machine, the more cost effective it is to install and operate. There is much complexity in all options and it is important to do your homework.
If interested in more information, please read on the full report.
Modified: 03-07-2008
