Installation and use of Wind Energy

Question

What are the issues involving the installation and use of Wind Energy

Answer 1

The glaring issue with wind energy is that it's not a constant source of power.  It depends on the winds.  If winds are too high or too low then they shut down.  Therefore they can't be used as a sole source of power, they must be integrated into diversified grid of sources such that they fill in each others' gaps and provide seamless power to the load (customer).

Cats kill hundreds of times more birds than wind turbines do.  Turbines kill many more bats than birds though, for whatever reason.  

Answer 2

This is not my field of electrical engineering but installation issues include site selection, usually windfarms have to be above sealevel as the wind is less erratic at altitude.  Larger turbines are reducing this issue though.  Direct lightning strikes can completely destroy a wind turbine and have done in the past, this contributes to the site selection issue.

Also they can generate high dB levels of sound so cannot put large turbines near residential areas or noise sensiive areas (such as around cattle etc).  It also kills bats and birds, takes up large amounts of space.

Actually just found a site that may explain it better than I can:

http://www.aweo.org/notsofast.html

Got this one too:

http://www.aweo.org/

It is a link to documents covering this issue.

Answer 3

You mean impact? Or benefit?

Benefits: Good return rate, no emission or chemical by products, use renewable and unlimited resource.

Impact: visual impact, noise impact from the blade, wildlife impact (if in the path of migratory birds), limited by geography (need to find the right place to get enough or not too much wind), and power loss due to AC-DC-AC transformations (some european companies has invented DC power generation from wind turbines though)