The Pros And Cons Of Offshore Wind Power

The potential of off shore wind farms have been recognized just recently in the world as an energy source. For thousands of years people have used wind power in ships, pumping water, and much more. Beginning of the 21st century, the demand of electricity started to increased and renewable energy such as wind power has been the answer to many industries. More people are able to see the potential of wind power in the United States due to the fact that it doesn’t cause any pollution, which is one of the major problems for the environment. However, many manufacturing industries argue that wind farms require heavy investments on wind turbines and could cause a threat to the wildlife. Now the question remains; should Off Shore wind

It makes it’s a great candidate to provide clean, nonpolluting electricity that businessman can use(Gillis). Nowdays there are companies who seek to become more environmentally reliable on using wind power. Wind power is one of the fastest growing energy technologies in the world with an annual growth of more than 30 percent(Sen).The U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management has approved many projects in the United States. One of them include, the Block Island Wind Farm, which is a small project, but it can power up to 17,000 homes in merely five turbines. The production of wind energy is produced when the wind causes two or more propeller-like blades to rotate around a rotor. This action called wind turbine spins a generator that supplies an electric current to make electricity. According to the New York Times Magazine by Bryan Walsh, “The Turbines are easier and cheaper to build.” Wind turbines can power schools and large facilities in an instance. Small-scale turbines have enough power to light up homes. The stronger the winds are, the more power will be generated. However, one of the major downside is that wind energy relies mostly on the current of the wind and could be useless with none at all. Building turbines off shore provide strong wind which can generate large amounts of power and could be a great source of renewable energy in the

According to the article by Robert Fares, “While the all-in price of wind energy directly depends on the wind speeds at a particular site, examining national trends in the installed cost of wind energy definitively shows that wind energy has become an extremely inexpensive source of electricity.” The report by the U.S. Department of Energy(DOE) showed that wind energy wind will continue to be one of the lowest cost electricity generation technologies available. It’s true that the initial installation of wind power technologies require high costs depending on the number of turbines being installed. However, once these systems are up and running, the operational costs will significantly come down (Thomsen). Wind energy is becoming more competitive with other source of energy that they continue to improve their equipment and performance costs. Industry data shows that wind turbines installed in 2016 have larger diameter rotors, which allow them to capture more wind in total, and higher hub heights, which allows them to capture more steady winds. The average costs of wind power have been 2-3 cents per kilowatt hour depending on the company providing the service. According to several reports, by 2030 wind energy costs will cut in half, thus providing house owners much more cheaper way to obtain