Advantages and Disadvantages of Wind Energy
Wind power can be used to run water pumps, charging of batteries and for electric generation of power. Wind energy can be used where wind speeds are reasonably high in the range of 8 to 40 kmph. Such wind speeds are available along the sea cost at high altitudes and in hilly terrain.
Near Thirunalveli const in Tamil Nadu, a wind farm called Kaithar project and in Kutch (Gujrat) have been operating for power generation.
The advantages and disadvantages of wind power are appended below in brief.
Advantages of wind power :
- It is available free and is inexhaustible.
- It is clean and non-polluting.
- Have low maintenance cost.
- Has low cost of power generation of about Rs.2.25/kWh.
Disadvantages of wind power :
- At present capital cost is high. It is about Rs 35 crores/MW.
- Wind energy available is dilute and fluctuating in nature both in magnitude and direction.
- Large variation in wind speed during cyclones, hurricanes, tornadoes may cause damage to installation.
- Design of system is difficult due to large variation of wind speed from time to time and season to season. These problems also require the provision of suitable storage device to ensure continuous power supply.
- Maximum power obtained is given as, Pmax = 8/27 P A C3 having an efficiency of 59.26%. In actual practice the efficiency is lower than this. It is in the range of about 35% to 44%.
- It causes sound pollution. A large unit can be heard few kilometres away.