Wind
After twenty years of rapid progress, wind energy is the best-developed source of renewable electricity. Across the world, people are investing billions in putting up huge wind farms. On high plateaux in China, across the US Great Plains and on Spain’s Atlantic coast, tens of thousands of elegant, quiet turbines capture energy from moving air. On windy days, turbines provide almost half Spain’s electricity.
Many other countries could eventually get most of their power from wind. Onshore wind power is inexpensive and technically mature, and turbines out at sea, where winds are generally stronger, should eventually provide viable sources of low-cost power.
The wind doesn’t blow all the time at any particular point, but international networks of electricity grids could move electricity from windy to calmer areas. We can develop new methods of storing energy to meet short-term needs. One of the most effective ways of dealing with the variability of the wind would be to convert to electric cars with high-capacity batteries. When the wind drops, stationary cars can boost the power supply for many hours by pushing their electricity into the local grid. Wind needs to be part of a portfolio of electricity sources, and it is already dramatically reducing CO2 emissions in many parts of the world.
Fixing energy – Chris Goodall
© Aufwind-Luftbilder/VISUM
