FXSTD – Alternative Energy Center

By: Hamza Naeem
Limitations of Wind energy:

No electricity when there is any wind

The limitation of wind power is that no electricity is produced when the wind is not blowing. Thus, it cannot be used as a dependable source of base load power. Utilities and merchant generators will not invest huge sums of money into a technology that does not work when the wind is not blowing. Americans want the lights on when they flip the switch, no questions asked. Wind power will probably increase its market share when we develop a 'smart grid' that can handle multiple distributed generation input sources of electrical power.

Wind Turbines Killing Migrating Birds

It has been estimated that about 45,000 birds (golden eagles, kestrels and red-tailed hawks) have been killed over the past twenty years by the whirling blades of wind turbines. The rows of spinning blades at Altamont Pass, east of San Francisco, turn wind into electricity, but they are killing many predatory birds whose annual migration route includes the pass. Past attempts to reduce bird kills have included painting the tips of turbine blades to try to make them more visible to birds and installing screens around generators. These measures have failed to substantially lower the number of bird deaths.

Bat kills are the latest big problem for wind farmers. Researcher’s estimate that 1,500 to 4,000 bats were killed at the Mountaineer Wind Energy Center in Western Maryland in 2004. This is raising concerns about an expansion of wind turbine use at Backbon Mountain in Maryland, where Clipper Wind power, Inc.of California is planning to build a project 20 miles away from the Mountaineer site.

Solutions of limitations:

We should build wind turbines where there is too much of wind like near sea so there will be 24 hours electricity and the problem of electricity will be solved and there are less birds near sea so the problem of killing birds will also be solved.