Profiles Of Wind Energy In Use

Humankind has been using wind energy for millennia. Pumping water, grinding grain, and hanging wet clothes out to dry are examples of wind energy in use.

Current uses of wind energy are, in some cases, not much different from the ancient ways. Some grain grinding is still with a stone mill. Water pumping, like the ancient Zoroastrians a thousand years ago, is still going on in the Fertile Crescent. A flag or banner looks impressive and heartening snapping in the wind. The Dutch, who still pump water and reclaim land from below sea level, as they have for hundreds of years, are still at it.

The advantages of using wind energy are the same reasons that our forebears had; wind is free and abundant, it was adaptive to harnessing, such as the sails on ships or on windmill wings. Some of the current uses of wind energy are advantages that our aforementioned forbears did not know about. The use of wind energy is a nonpolluting resource, and that the kinetic energy of the wind can be made into electricity and stored for later use.

Regions that use wind energy a great deal would include Europe; which countries use wind energy include Holland, Germany, Denmark, and Spain. The Germans build towers for their wind turbines that are ninety-eight meters high. Australia, not to be outdone, has plans for a tower that tops one thousand meters! As a wise man once said, “Putting a wind turbine on a short tower is like mounting solar panels in the shade.”

Wind energy uses are not nearly as plentiful as they could be. Uses for wind energy are subsidized in much of Europe. There are utilities in the States that, to their credit, do allow the grid tie-in people to let excess wind and PV (photovoltaic, or solar) power flow back through the grid. The Danes and Germans, as government policy, not only take back excess electricity but also pay a fair market value for it. That would go a long way to explaining all the small wind turbines that have popped up all over their countries. There are more and more utility companies that do basically the same thing in the States, but it is not on the same scale as Europe.

What is the practical use of wind energy? Is there anything that could be impractical about it? It isn't finite, like fossil fuel and it will always be there. There are places where it blows more, or harder, or sweeter, but still you can't lock it away or command it. There will always be a magical quality for the wind, for those exact reasons.