Wind Turbine Energy: How It Works and Stocks to Watch

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Wind energy has tremendous potential to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. However the main problem with wind turbines are that they are not suitable for producing electricity at every parts of the world.

Since it requires large flows of air current for electricity generation it might be difficult to find the correct place for such installations.

Given the amount of energy wind machines capture, both the material and energy requirements for their manufacture are impressively low. If well-designed wind machines are placed at good wind sites, electricity can be generated for as little as 10 cents per kilowatt hour. Wind energy should definately be used more.

As far as i know it is a rotating machine which converts the kinetic energy in wind into mechanical energy.. and it goes along with windmill when the mechanical energy is used directly by machinery, such as a pump or grinding stones..and for this days, it is very helpful to us to have another option when it comes in producing energy..

The real problem with wind energy is to get it you have to have wind. There are very few places where the wind is always sufficient, so in the short term other sources that provide 100% reliability have to be maintained as well. As wind becomes more prevalent, as it has grown over the past 10 years, more installations will build in additional reliability. Point for me is it it not just the profitability issue that will hold back wind as a power generating source, but the widespread availability and distribution grid to handle that many generation locations.

I know of an area with dozens of turbines just a couple hours drive from the city. Those turbines are the traditional ones with the turbine axels horizontal.

I've started to hear about the kind with the axels vertical, but I don't think I've seen any of those yet.

Has anybody here seen "vertical axel wind turbines?"

I think it's safe to say that wind turbine represents an increase in energy supply, but it could never replace traditional forms of energy.

Originally Posted by Cass

Based on research data analysis, we project small residential wind turbines and solar PV are examples of technologies moving the U.S. toward realizing the new administration’s vision for a renewable energy future combined with creating thousands of new manufacturing and dealer jobs across the country.

We have all heard about the claims of wind turbine companies that say they create jobs in the communities they are in. Well, that is not exactly true. What is true is that while constructing the turbines, most of these companies will be importing labor from their own workforce. There will be some construction jobs for the locals, but not as many as we'd like to think.

Also, after the construction, there won't be too many jobs for the local people available

Originally Posted by Paunil

I think it's safe to say that wind turbine represents an increase in energy supply, but it could never replace traditional forms of energy.

I do think that wind turbines are a bad idea. Aside from the unreliability, wind turbines have been known to kill birds, bats and other flying animals. It's a horrible way to save the environment by killing other animals!

A 2002 study in Spain estimated that 11,200 birds of prey, 350,000 bats, and 3,000,000 small birds are killed annually by wind turbines and their power lines. Note that most of these birds are already on the endangered species list!

Originally Posted by Paunil

We have all heard about the claims of wind turbine companies that say they create jobs in the communities they are in. Well, that is not exactly true. What is true is that while constructing the turbines, most of these companies will be importing labor from their own workforce. There will be some construction jobs for the locals, but not as many as we'd like to think.

Also, after the construction, there won't be too many jobs for the local people available

I've heard of this. I also know for a fact that a typical large windfarm won't need too many maintenance people. I've read that an 89 turbine facility in Iowa had 200 construction workers, but only 20 were local. And less than 10 permanent jobs were created over there!

What about noise? The European Union admitted that the noise levels are significant and there is practically no way to know how much noise a turbine would produce while still under development. In fact, the EU study found that a turbine's noise may be heard 800 feet away! More studies say that noise levels may be heard from some 3000 feet away!

Originally Posted by Paunil

We have all heard about the claims of wind turbine companies that say they create jobs in the communities they are in. Well, that is not exactly true. What is true is that while constructing the turbines, most of these companies will be importing labor from their own workforce. There will be some construction jobs for the locals, but not as many as we'd like to think.

Also, after the construction, there won't be too many jobs for the local people available

Hmmmn... that's actually a much very optimistic! On the average, turbines in the US need created only 1 or 2 permanent jobs!

Take heart, though. I think that most of the turbines being proposed now are out in the unpopulated places that has a steady stream of wind. That would address the problems like reliability, noise pollution, decrease in property values and decrease in tourism.