Essential Wind Power Facts
The truth is, man has been using wind power his work, and propel his travels since the time of the Pharaohs. The Nile River teamed with boats harnessing the power of the wind for travel. Some 1,000 years later, Middle Eastern civilizations began using windmills for grinding grain. During the Crusades, soldiers brought the first windmills to Europe. They looked similar to what we all know as the Dutch windmill. These are just a few wind power facts.
While windmills have been around for thousands of years, they are not an old-fashioned source of energy production. The technology involved in windmills or wind turbines has continued to progress. There are currently 50,000 wind turbines working globally to provide more than 50 billion kilowatt hours annually.
Typical American households use 10,000 kilowatt hours of energy each year. That’s enough energy to heat and light five million homes. A wind farm (group of windmills) spread over an area the size of one-tenth of the State of Nevada would supply the entire United States with power, completely replacing fossil fuel sources.
Wind power facts and goals by country;
• By 2020 wind energy is estimated to provide 6% of the total power required by the U.S.
• In 2010 the UK will become 10% wind powered.
• Spain currently gets 6% of its power from wind.
• Germany is consuming 8%.
• Denmark leads the pack with over 20% of their energy coming from wind.
How can you turn these Wind power facts into a specific benefit for you? Try adding a wind turbine to your property. Technological advancement allows individuals to exploit wind power privately, not just through large commercial undertakings. Federal, state, and local governments are rewarding wind energy investment.
In some areas, a production credit is available. If you commercially produce wind energy, you can earn $01.8 per kilowatt-hour produced for the first ten years of wind farm production. This type of credit is generally not available to private producers.
Wind power facts include the ability to sell back power to the power company. Once you have produced enough power for your own use, your meter starts running in reverse. The remaining power can be sold back to the power company at retail prices, not the wholesale prices a power company would negotiate from a commercial wind energy farm.
In many states small wind energy producers earn “green” credits for producing renewable energy. You can buy, sell or trade your “green” credits. Large traditional energy producing companies are required to have a certain number of these credits each year and when they can’t “make” their quota, they will buy credits.
Several tax credits are also available, including credits for purchase and installation. Some states give landowners a tax credit of up to 25% of the cost of installing an approved alternative energy system.
I hope this brief set of wind power facts have given you a glimpse into this ages-old alternative power source and how you might employ it.
Jeff Fisher is a renewable energy enthusiast. You’ll finds tons of helpful green energy information at http://renewableenergysimplified.com/.
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Author: Jeff Fisher
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Make PCB Assembly
