Wind Power: Estimates of Energy Potential and Environmental Issues

Abstract

Wind power plants have been indicated great progress for last decades. They consist of large propeller blades driving turbines mounted on high towers. Hundreds of wind power plants are approximately needed to equal the output of one coal power station. The energy output of wind turbines is highly variable, because it is proportional to the cube of the wind velocity. The wind power plants are mostly grouped into the wind farms that occupy large areas of land, so many of them are often being built offshore. It results in the highly variable output power that can oscillate during an hour. In many countries, the subsidies for wind power are on the low level, which causes stopping further the development. Wind power is useful on remote windy sites where the electricity demand is insufficient for the development of large power stations and the transport of electrical power is uneconomical.