WIND ENERGY

DEFINITION

Wind is simple air in motion. The uneven heating of the earth’s surface by the sun sets off this wind motion. Since the earth’s surface is made of different types of land and water, it absorbs the sun’s heat at different rates.

This energy is a result of the heating of our oceans, earth, and atmosphere by the sun. A wind energy system transforms the kinetic (moving) energy of the wind into mechanical or electrical energy that can be harnessed for practical use.

The extraordinary success of the wind industry finally caught the attention of major players in the energy policy arena. The rapid development of wind power for a sustainable production of electricity in the light of global environment crisis is remarkable.

Modern technology stands in the forefront to harness wind power, from the first mill recorded since the 6th century AD to the latest wind turbine models. The development of wind turbine technology puts Europe at the core of this high-tech industry but North America is not far behind. (1)

Today, wind energy is mainly used to generate electricity. Wind is called a renewable energy source because the wind blows all the time.

Then:

• Daniel Halliday and John Burnham developed the Halliday Windmill sometime in the 1850s while Thomas Perry invented the mathematical windmill during the 1880s.
  
  
• 1887 saw Charles F. Brush build the world's first automatically operating wind turbine to generate electricity in Cleveland, Ohio. It was then considered the world’s largest - with a rotor diameter of 17 m (50 ft.) and 144 rotor blades made of cedar wood.
  
  
• During the OPEC oil embargo in 1973, rising oil prices increased interest in other energy sources, such as wind energy.

Now:

• Turbines today are sleek and slender machines, a far cry from their bucolic wooden ancestors. Around the world, wind turbines of all sizes have become a familiar sight; ranging from home or farm-scale machines of 1 kilowatt (kW), all the way up to arrays of large 3 megawatt (MW) machines.
  
  
• Modern wind turbines are up to the task of producing serious amounts of electricity. A popular sized machine in the U.S. today is a state-of-the-art 2 MW turbine that stands as tall as a 30-story building and costs roughly $3.5 million installed.

WIND ENERGY HIGHLIGHTS

• Wind energy continued its growth in 2008 at 29% increased rate and worldwide capacity reached 121.188 MW. The wind sector garnered a turnover of € 40 billion.
  
  
• The USA took over the world’s number one position in terms of total wind power installations, dislodging Germany. China, on the other hand, dislodged India as Asia’s leading wind power producer.
  
  
• All wind turbines installed by the end of 2008 worldwide are generating 260 TWh per annum, equalling more than 1.5 % of the global electricity consumption.
  
  
• The wind sector became a global job generator and has created 440,000 jobs worldwide.
  
  
• North America and Asia catch up in terms of new installations with Europe, which shows stagnation.
  
  
• Based on accelerated development and further improved policies, a global capacity of more than 1,500,000 MW is possible by the year 2020.
  

COMING PROJECTS/ EXPECTED INVESTMENTS

• China continues to be the most dynamic wind market in 2008, doubling the installations with more than 12 GW of wind turbines installed.
  
  
• An interdepartmental commission for siting industrial scale projects in Murmansk, Russia has approved a declaration to build a €300 million wind energy park that, in its first stages, will provide 200 megawatts of power to the region, and be in full service by 2013. The company, which is 51 percent owned by its parent company in the Netherlands, Windlife Energy BP, is the developer and executor of the Murmansk wind park project. (6)
  
  
• Ataseven Energy Production, a Turkish energy company operating in the wind power sector, and Epuron, a German company operating in the fields of wind and solar power and bioenergy, have announced that they are planning to make a joint investment in wind power in Turkey. (7)
  
  
• UK’s Electricity Networks Strategy Group (ENSG) has estimated that about $6.6 billion will be required to reinforce the national power grid to take advantage of the renewable energy sources expected to contribute to the country’s power infrastructure by 2020. (8)
  
  
• Centrica, which owns British Gas, recently announced its plans to develop the depleted Baird North Sea gas field. Sam Laidlaw, chief executive of utility giant Centrica has said that government support is needed for wind farms with new offshore wind projects facing “considerable hurdles” as a result of a shortage of debt finance (9)

1, 2, 3  Next>