Cost and Performance Impacts of Wind
In recent years and in certain regions, large-scale wind turbines have become cost-competitive with conventional fossil fuel electricity. On a broader scale, wind energy can benefit the economy and national security. The primary cost barrier to wind is its intermittency, which can impact the economics of individual projects.
Benefit: Cost Savings & Profit Opportunities
Wind power can be competitive with conventional electricity supply options in large, multi-turbine arrays and in residential and community-scale applications. By tapping wind resources, project developers can make a profit by selling both electricity and renewable energy certificates. Homeowners, businesses, communities, and other electricity consumers that install wind systems can reduce their energy bills. They may also be able to take part in net-metering, where excess electricity is sold back to the local electric utility.
Benefit: Fuel Savings
Every wind-powered megawatt-hour means that another megawatt-hour is not being produced by a fuel-consuming electric generator. This not has direct economic benefit for the owner of the wind turbine from fuel savings. On a regional scale, it could also reduce the state's vulnerability to fluctuations in the price of fossil fuels.
Benefit: Energy Security
Because wind energy is locally available, it also displaces the need for foreign fuels and local fossil fuels. This not only saves on fuel costs for the electricity generated, but also provides a hedge against overreliance on other fuels like natural gas.
Benefit: Economic Development
Wind presents significant opportunities for economic development. Its economic impacts include job creation, capital retention, price stability, export potential to other states and regions, and an absence of externalized cost impacts.
Barrier: Intermittency
Because the wind blows intermittently, wind technology alone cannot supply all the electricity for a consumer, community, or region. In off-grid applications, energy storage or back-up generation systems often help to provide continuous power by storing excess power from the wind turbine when it is not used and putting this power out when the wind is not blowing. For installations connected to the electric grid, the grid itself ensures a continuous power supply. In purely commercial applications, wind turbine owners must negotiate supply contracts that account for wind's intermittent nature. All of these factors can add incremental costs to wind power.
Wind's intermittency also poses challenges to electric utilities. If wind represents a large percentage of a region's total generating capacity, unpredictable fluctuations in power output could destabalize electric supply and distribution. In addition, a present inability to accurately forecast the amount of wind energy produced can complicate the scheduling and dispatch of wind facilities. Forecasting limitations also make it harder for owners of wind turbines to take advantage of business opportunities in certain types of electricity markets.
Solutions: Advanced technologies are being developed to help address these challenges. To minimize power quality and reliability problems, power electronic devices can regulate the output of individual turbines to match the characteristics of the electricity flowing on the electric grid.
Forecasting systems that incorporate advanced monitoring, communications, and analysis techniques can provide owners with the ability to optimize wind project operations and participate more effectively in power markets.
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