Wind power has been growing at a pace that rivals that of the solar industry. The worldwide generating capacity of wind turbines has grown more than 25% every year for the past decade, reaching nearly 60,000 MW in early 2006. In Europe, the growth has been phenomenal. In 1994, the total installed wind generated power capacity of the European Union nations was 1700 MW. In 2005, wind generators produce more than 40,000 MW. Germany alone has more than 18,000 MW of wind power capacity, thanks to a politically aggressive system of construction. The northern state of Germany, Schleswig-Holstein, currently provides one quarter of its electrical demand with more than 2400 wind turbines, and in some months wind power provides more than half of the state’s electricity.
Spain has 10,000 MW of wind capacity. Denmark has 3000 MW. Great Britain, the Netherlands, Italy and Portugal each have more than 1000 MW.
In the U.S., the wind power industry has also accelerated dramatically. Power generation capacity due to wind has increased 36% recently. Even though wind turbines produce only 0.5% of the nations electricity, the potential for expansion is really quite large, especially when the Great Plains states are considered. North Dakota, for example, has greater wind power resources than Germany, but only 98 MW of generating capacity is installed there. If the U.S. constructed enough wind farms to fully tap those resources, the turbines could generate as much as 11 trillion kWh of electricity, or nearly 3 times the total amount produced from all energy sources in the nation last year.
The reservations about wind power come partly from utility companies that are reluctant to use the new technology. Although opinions vary on how wind turbines will affect landscape use, everyone agrees that they must be balanced against the social cost of the alternatives. Because our energy needs are growing very quickly, rejecting wind farms will often result in the construction or expansion of fossil fuel burning power plants that have a much more damaging environmental effect.
