Wind Energy Pros and Cons

The rapid depletion of natural and non-renewable resources has led mankind to search for other powerful and never ending sources of energy to meet its needs and demands. Wind power or wind energy is one of those energy sources that is used for generating electricity and helping us up to a large extent to cope with our ever increasing needs and demands of electricity.

Today, many developing as well as developed countries like the United States, Spain, India, Germany etc, make use of wind energy to generate electricity. Despite its worldwide use, wind energy pros and cons do exist! The following is a brief discussion on it.

What are the Pros and Cons of Wind Energy?

Pros of Wind Energy
Here are some of the ways in which wind energy proves beneficial to us.

• The biggest benefit one can reap out of wind energy is that it generates electricity, but does not release any harmful pollutants or gases as by products. This therefore makes it a safer and cleaner source of energy.
• Wind energy is also one of the cheapest forms of energy available today and therefore it can be used by everyone, including poor farmers from rural areas.
• Farmers can not only use the electricity for themselves, but can also earn income out of it, by providing electricity to several homes.
• Wind energy does not involve the use of any fossil fuels or non-renewable sources of energy like natural gas, coal or oil. This proves that it is an efficient renewable energy.
• Wind is a never ending resource, therefore power cuts and power failures are almost non-existent in areas that rely upon wind power to generate electricity.
• With the use of larger electric grids, higher amount of electricity can be generated, which thus makes electricity accessible to a larger number of households in the vicinity.

Cons of Wind Energy
Let us now look at the flip side of the coin. Wind energy does have some shortcomings. Find out what are those.

• Wind turbines can get damaged or completely destroyed when hit by a heavy storm or a severe lightning.
• Wind energy helps to solve the electricity problems up to a large extent, but it does not eliminate it completely. It therefore signifies that, we still need to come up with other better options.
• Wind does not necessarily flow in the same speed all the time. Therefore, the production of electricity would not always remain consistent, there might be ups and downs in its production, depending upon the speed of the wind. This inconsistency in electricity production affects its supply in the nearby high demand areas like cities and towns
• There have been instances in the past, when the rotating blades of the turbines have proved fatal for birds that happened to hit it.
• Wind turbines, on an average make a sound of about 50-60 decibel. Slower the wind's speed, larger is the sound produced.
• In recent times, some people have claimed that wind turbines lower the aesthetic beauty of the land! However, I think that, it is a matter of individual perception and not everyone looks at things in the same way.

I hope that you must have understood all the aforementioned wind energy pros and cons. Read more on advantages and disadvantages of wind energy.

Wind energy will forever remain a 'near to perfect' source of energy for us, yet due to its disadvantages, the conquest of finding out a perfect alternative continues. So let us hope for its emergence in the near future and handover a better planet to our future generations.