The Art of Business

The Good Turn of the Wind Turbine

Wind farms are popping up all over the world. Scotland has plans to not only increase the size of the farm in Glasgow, but to build a farm in Shetland as well, which will provide more than 50 percent of the energy to light the homes in the UK by the year 2020. In the United States, the wind farm in the plains and the San Gorgonio Mountain range in California is made up of more than four thousand turbines, and is the source of energy for the city of Palm Springs, as well as the entire valley of Coachella. Many other states in the U.S. are homes to wind farms such as Texas and Wyoming as well as the farms located in other countries throughout the world such as Germany, Denmark, Brazil, China and Australia.

Wind turbine farms have many positive impacts on the environment. There is no water water pollution nor air pollution as a result of their operation as they do not produce any hazardous waste materials. No natural resources such as gas, oil or coal are depleted, and there is not need to transport the energy in big semi trucks or in rail-cars. Not only to they produce no environmental risks, they actually are helping in reducing the damaged caused by other types of plants, in the United States, and in the rest of the world. And while there is energy needed to transport materials to the building site, and the building of the farm, that energy is equal to the amount of energy provided by the farm once it is operation for just a few short months.

One of the concerns with the wind farms is the location, as the wind blowing to turn them must be consistent in order to provide enough energy for the cost effectiveness and the reliability of the electricity sources. In some areas the winds shift rapidly and without warning, just too unpredictable to be viable. On shore, some of the best locations for the farms are too far away from cities to be of any use. Some countries and cities, attend to this problem by building the farms off shore. Careful considerations must be made for the off shore sites as well, to ensure that no harm will be caused to marine life and aquatic bird-life. Companies today are weighing all the options, and within a few short years, one third of the worlds electricity may come from something so simple as the wind blowing across the plains.