| While driving back from Colorado
last summer, we were met by the amazing sight of what appeared
to be hundreds of wind turbines slowly spinning in the wind.
We had driven through the same area last year, and none of them
were there then. All of them had been installed within a year’s
time.
From a distance, the turbines did not appear
to be that large, but as we drove closer it was obvious that
the three-bladed turbines were more than one hundred feet in
diameter.
The wind turbine farm is located in Lamar County
in the southeastern corner of the state. It produces about 162
megawatts of electricity, enough to power over 45,000 homes.
As long as the wind is blowing over 10 miles per hour, the turbines
will produce about 750 kilowatts of power.
Almost all residents of Colorado can purchase
wind power electricity by signing up for it from their local
power company. Most of Colorado’s power companies are participating
in the program. When a customer signs up for wind power, the
power company is required to purchase a certain amount of electricity
from the wind farms.
Energy from the wind is renewable energy that
is constantly available. In a sense, the energy comes from the
sun because the sun fuels our weather patterns, creating nearly
constant air movement.
Wind energy is attractive to environmentalists
because there is virtually no pollution created by the turbines.
There has been some concern about visual pollution and noise
pollution, which for the most part have been addressed by the
aesthetic design of the wind turbines and technology that reduces
noise output.
The wind turbines that we saw were all sitting
out in the middle of farm fields. Rather than purchase the land
for the units, the power generation company leases the land
for the turbines. Since they are mounted on a single pole, they
use only a very small amount of land, perhaps an area about
20’ square. Farmers had planted their crops up to within a few
feet of the poles.
Wind power is not a new idea – it has been in
use for about 4,000 years – but the ability to efficiently harvest
substantial electricity from the wind is a fairly new development.
In 1980, electricity generated from the wind
cost about 38 cents per kilowatt hour, but is down to between
3 and 6 cents today. The price is expected to drop to about
2 cents by the year 2005, making it comparable to conventional
energy sources.
Nationwide, wind farms produce about 6,300 megawatts
of power. In comparison, hydroelectric power from dams produces
about 80,000 megawatts.
In Oklahoma, construction of 45 turbines was
completed last November at the Blue Canyon Wind Farm near Anadarko.
The wind turbines there have 115 foot diameter blades, and sit
atop 220 foot high towers. This wind farm produces 74.25 megawatts
of energy, enough for about 20,000 homes.
One disadvantage of wind power is that unless
the wind is blowing, no energy is being produced. For this reason,
wind energy is considered to be an intermittent power source,
and must be supplemented by conventional power sources. However,
if sufficient numbers of wind farms are constructed, constant
energy could be supplied to the energy grid even though some
of the turbines aren’t turning.
New energy sources like wind power are extremely
important to the security of our nation, because the less we
must rely on foreign oil, the less risk we face from an oil
embargo or the negative economics of high oil prices.
However, as more renewable energy sources are
developed, we face another danger from within.
As alternative energy sources begin to reduce
our need for oil, environmentalists will argue that we should
not develop further oil sources on American soil. Even when
alternative energy sources become more highly developed, we
are still going to need oil for a very, very long time.
It is foolish to continue the ban on drilling
for oil in Anwar, Alaska, or off the shores of the United States.
Since it takes years to develop these oil fields, we should
allow work on these areas to begin immediately.
As I spoke about in my article last week, we
should be willing to embrace new ideas that will help our country
become self-sufficient. But we should also continue to work
with known technologies as long as necessary until new technologies
can efficiently replace the old. Striking a good balance between
old and new technologies and energy sources will give this country
the most optimum security for its energy needs.
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