Wind Farms

EES 205
Off Shore Wind Farms
Despite the controversy over the Cape Wind wind farm, the plan passed in order to produce clean energy for the citizens of the area. Many people in this area are concerned with the unsightly wind turbines and others are more concerned about the high cost of producing these large turbines. This is not the only of shore in the world. There are many other off shore wind farms all around the globe. There are off shore wind farms all over Europe, including the United Kingdom as well as Denmark. Wind energy is important because, unlike fossil fuel, wind is a renewable energy source. Although the initial cost of these farms might be pricey in the short term, as time goes on energy prices will be reduced, and more importantly so will carbon emissions.
The main concern of wind energy is the price. When wind farms were first introduced in the 1980’s the cost was high. Originally wind-generated electricity cost as much as 30 cents per kilowatt-hour. However, now prices are nowhere near as high as they use to be. Now, state-of-the-art wind power plants can generate electricity for less than 5 cents/kWh. Even though the production costs for a commercial scale wind turbine in 2007 ranged from $1.2 million to $2.6 million, over time people will see a decrease in energy bill because of the low 5 cents/kWh. The cost of the energy should be secondary to the fact that wind is a renewable energy that we can harvest all over the country.
The US is all ready behind the eight ball when it comes to off shore wind farms. The first large-scale offshore wind farm in the UK, North Hoyle, was commissioned in December 2003 and the second, Scroby Sands, in December 2004. The UK is also home to the world's largest offshore wind farm, the 90-MW Kentish Flats, which was commissioned in 2005. Together these farms make up a total of 213.80 MW of offshore wind energy around the UK coast, and the best part is that all of this energy is renewable. The UK is not the... [continues]

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