Study Projects Windpower Growth At 26% For 2005 - Reuters

[hatrack]

COPENHAGEN - "New installed global wind-power capacity should rise 16.6 percent on average per year in the next four years, with Europe leading world demand, an industry report showed on Thursday.

In 2005, growth is expected to be around 26 percent. The report by Danish consultancy BTM showed that total wind-power capacity grew 20 percent to almost 48,000 megawatts last year -- enough to fuel about 16 million homes -- although growth in 2004 was lower than in 2003.

"This is the first time since 1996 that stagnation in new installation has been observed, a temporary event mainly caused by the drop in the US market," it said.

Last year, 8,154 megawatts of new capacity was added, a decrease in annual installation of 2.3 percent compared with the record year 2003. The industry has shown an average growth of 15.8 percent over the past five years."

EDIT

http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/30191/story.htm

[kk897]

1. sounds good, but...

Is it enough? Or is this just a drop in the bucket, so to speak, of relieving Peak Oil pressures?

[NNadir]

2. Windpower has little to do with peak oil.

Oil is responsible for very little power generation.

It does have a lot to do with global warming though when it replaces coal and natural gas capacity. Wind power is in most cases the cleanest way to generate electricity known. It works very well; and it's economics are quite good. The only problem with it is that it is intermittent and can be unreliable.

It, like other forms of clean energy, has a NIMBY problem though.

[kk897]

4. I realize that, which is why I phrased it the way I did.

I'm wondering if there's some way to put the extra wind power to work to solve some of the *pressures* the Peak Oil problem is causing/will cause (depending upon how you look at it). In other words, is there some way to use it in other applications where fossil fuels have been used in the past? I don't know much about it, really. Could there be some way of capturing the electricity generated by wind power in some kind of battery that could power a vehicle, for instance?

It was a genuine question on my part--I wasn't being a smarty pants. Maybe a dumb question, but I didn't mean to denigrate wind power in any way.

[NNadir]

5. You were not being a "smarty pants" and I hope I wasn't flippant.

Batteries, at least metal based batteries have quite a bit of inefficiency, have poor environmental properties, and are generally expensive. That said, battery technology is getting better all the time, as the successful introduction of hybrid technology, portable computers, cell phones, etc show.

Some hybrids, I believe will have pluggable options and, as wind power is not necessarily available at peak loads, on further reflection, your question is not completely off base. That said, my guess is that wind will not make a huge dent in the demand for oil. While wind capacity is rapidly being installed, the reliability issue still remains and the resources are not infinite. Most transportation energy loads occur at peak hours (rush hour for instance) and the opportunity for recharge, presumably at night, will not necessarily be the time that the wind is available.

Still, I favor wind technology almost anywhere it is installed. It is so safe and clean that it is actually safer than nuclear energy.

[kk897]

6. Thanks for the reply!

I would love to see wind farms sprout up across the land where practicable and not damaging to the environment. I'd love to see solar power cels on every roof (that is, solar power cels peeking out of grass roofs). Heck, I'd love to see houses built underground, rammed earth, straw bale construction, etc.... You're right; such measures might not make a huge dent in the coming energy crisis, but it would give us a cleaner, more pleasant environment, and those who embrace alternative energy sources and building methods would at least be better prepared to deal with the compounding problems of Peak Oil.

One of the problems that people who study Peak Oil mention is maintaining a fresh water supply. Of course, farms and ranches have depended upon a small version of wind power for ages--the well/windmill setup. That might be one way to use wind farms, only on a larger scale.

[Massacure]

3. Electricity is not made using oil.

[Dogmudgeon]

7. Actually, I think some of it is

Gas and oil-fired generators are not ubiquitous, but there are plenty of them. Hydroelectric and nuclear power are two of the other major sources, even with the aversion to nuclear power plants and the drought in the West.

Does any one have a source for the statistics on electricity generation?

--p!

[Massacure]

8. If I recall it is a little below 2%. Oil is mainly used for peaking plants

Gas is cheaper to run for peaking plants though.