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Qishen Xu
Professor Semih Eser
EGEE 101H
29 March 2014
The Power for a Sustainable Future- Wind Power
Wind is like a friend to us, because it exists everywhere and we can often feel it and hear
it. What is wind? Wind is the flow of gases on a large scale. Thanks to this property, wind energy
not only has a large quantity and easy access, but also can be transformed into other useful forms
of power, such as mechanical and electrical. In fact, this property has been utilized by human
beings for an incredibly long time. With the progression of wind power, its efficiency is getting
continuously higher. Nowadays, wind power is becoming a great alternative to fossil fuels due to
its great potential to be exploited and to save the world from energy crisis and global warming as
a type of renewable energy.
Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useable form of power, such as using
windmills for mechanical power, wind turbines for electricity and wind pump for drainage. Wind
energy is the kinetic energy of air in motion and its quite efficient if the wind speed is high.
According to the equation of wind energy, wind power in an open air
stream is proportional to wind speed; the available wind power increases eightfold when wind
speed doubles (Bohn, 40). Consequently, wind turbines are most efficient at greater wind speeds.
Wind power has been utilized by human beings for a long period of time, but the
development of wind power was slow in history, lacking humans attentions. People in Middle
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East developed windmills and applied widely for grinding flour and beans. According to its
history, wind energy has been used at least since 3,100 BC. However,
The first practical wind turbine was built by Charles Brush in 1886; it provided enough
electricity for 100 incandescent light bulbs, three arc lights and several electric motors.
However, the turbine was too expensive at that time for commercial development
(National Academies Press, 12).
As a result of the huge cost of wind turbine at that time, wind power was not greatly utilized;
nevertheless, the potential of wind energy is not ignorable.
The progression of wind power was accelerating under the double pressure of the 1973
oil crisis and the deterioration of the ecological environment. As a pollution-free and renewable
energy, wind power has a huge potential to develop, especially for some mountain areas and
remote villages which use wind energy for basic needs like electricity. Based on the report from
the National Research Council, the growth of capacity to generate electricity from wind energy
has been rapid, growing from almost none in 1980 to 11,603 megawatts (MW) in 2006 in the
United States, and about 60,000 MW in 2006 globally (1). These data greatly indicates the
significance of wind power. Moreover, the American wind industry experienced record-breaking
growth in 2012 as a U.S. power provider. American wind power's generation shot up 17 percent
last year, and produced more than 10 percent of the electricity in nine states, up from five states
in 2011. Across the country, wind energy produced 3.5 percent of the nation's electricity during
2012, according to the Energy Information Admiration's (EIA) latest figures (American wind
power now generates over 10 percent of electricity in nine states, AWEA).
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Unlike fossil fuel, wind power has its unique advantage of cleanliness as a renewable
energy, meaning that we can use them to provide electricity as much as we want without
considering the pollution such as greenhouse gases and dust. As Fthenakis Vasilis described in
his article, Wind power, as an alternative to fossil fuels, is plentiful, renewable, widely
distributed, clean, produces no greenhouse gas emissions during operation and uses little
land(6). Wind as an unlimited great source for producing electricity, can also create positive
long-term effects on the future of earth.
In conclusion, wind power plays an important role in future energy supply, not only is it
green and clean, but also has the huge potential to satisfy possible energy needs. Although the
cost of establishing wind turbines is expensive, the deeper and wider the application of wind
power is used, the more positive long-term benefits there are to outweigh the costs. The use of
wind energy is unlimited once it is utilized. The endless energy created by wind turbine is
definitely worth more than the finite costs it carries.







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Works Cited
American Wind Energy Association. American Wind Power Now Generates over 10 Percent of
Electricity in Nine States. Rep. American Wind Energy Association, 13 Mar. 2013. Web.
30 Mar. 2014.
Fthenakis, Vasilis, and Hyung Chul Kim. "Land use and Electricity Generation: A Life-Cycle
Analysis." Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 13.6 (2009): 1465-74. Print.
Glenn Bohn. "Harvesting the Wind: Final Edition." The Vancouver Sun: B.2. 2005. Print.
National Academies Press (U.S.), and National Research Council (U.S.). Committee on
Environmental Impacts of Wind-Energy Projects. Environmental Impacts of Wind-
Energy Projects. Washington, D.C: National Academies Press, 2007. Print.