Wind energy is the
cheaper than coal, natural gas and or course home heating oil. Coal costs about 7 cents per kiloWatt hr, gas is much higher. Wind runs about 5-7 cents depending on where the wind farm is situated. Solar power we obviously want to continue to research but right now it is much more expensive than any of the above.
Cost of Coal Comparitive Cost of Wind Power (note this data is from 1996. Gas now costs about 12 - 14 cents per kilowatt hour. Wind power cost has gone down since 1996. As more wind generators are built the cost will continue to do down for wind.)
Wind Energy Potential U.S. A study in 1992 <3> recalculated estimates of windy land area and wind electric potential based on a more accurate mapping of environmental exclusion areas and a moderate land exclusion scenario. These new estimates were about 1% to 2% higher than the preliminary estimates made in 1991 based on the same land exclusion scenario. Overall, even with land being excluded from wind energy development for environmental and land-use considerations, the amount of windy land available and potential electric power from wind energy is surprisingly large. The amount of windy land available for power class 4 and above is approximately 460,000 square kilometers, or about 6% of the total land area in the contiguous United States. The potential average power from areas with class 4 and higher, which are suitable for development with advanced wind turbine technology, is estimated at 500,000 MW. If future generation technology is utilized to take advantage of areas with wind resource class 3 and higher, then the amount of windy land available is over 1,000,000 square kilometers, or almost 14% of the land area in the contiguous United States. Moreover, the estimates show that a group of 12 states in the midsection of the country have enough wind energy potential to produce nearly four times the amount of electricity consumed by the nation in 1990.
Although the nation's wind potential is very large, only part of it can be exploited economically. The economic viability of wind power will vary from utility to utility. Important factors not addressed in this study that influence land availability and wind electric potential include production/demand match (seasonal and daily), transmission and access constraints, public acceptance, and other technological and institutional constraints.
To provide 20% of the nation's electricity, only about 0.6% of the land of the lower 48 states would have to be developed with wind turbines. Furthermore, less than 5% of this land would be occupied by wind turbines, electrical equipment, and access roads. Most existing land use, such as farming and ranching, could remain as it is now.
wind energy:
permits dual use of land (farming , grazing)
increases security of power grid due to distributed production (when we get about 5% of electrical energy from wind it will increase the security of old tech coal and gas fired plants because the terrorists won't blow them up knowing we can just transfer power from wind-farms.
IF WIND FARMS COULD GET FINANCING ON THE SAME TERMS AS UTILITY FINANCED COAL AND GAS FIRED POWER PLANTS THE COST FOR WIND POWER WOULD GO DOWN ANOTHER 40%!! (so 5 cents per KWhr becomes 3 cents per kWhr! Regarding wind variability, in Europe they use excess wind power (over demand) to pump water into a resevoir. Then when winds are not so great but demand is there, they let the water run through turbines to produce hydro-power! Obviously this adds to the overall cost but at the rate Natural Gas is going up (or even at the cost of Natural gas right now) this could very well be economically feasible very soon (if not already)..
This is one of the best kept secrets in the U.S. In Europe they are way ahead of us.
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