Wind Turbine Benefits

Submitted by bpo on Fri, 04/17/2009 - 10:40

For my last research blog I decided to try and find some of the benefits of using domestic wind turbine technology. This was harder than it seemed because I couldn’t really find a source that did not seem biased towards using wind turbines no matter what. Also most of the sources I found had slightly differing information. I finally settled on a couple of websites that I felt had a decent amount of information.
http://www.awea.org/faq/rsdntqa.html
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/09/18/micro.turbine/index.html

Overall I felt that some of this information could be used in a main section of the white paper. I also felt that a lot of this information would be better for supplementing a main section. Overall I found out that wind turbines save around 40 to 80 percent off of the average homes monthly electric bills. Depending on your location and the amount of money you are willing to spend on your wind turbine you may be able to produce more than what you need. In this case most countries will buy your excess energy. Obviously wind turbines help to cut down on carbon emissions. It generally takes 6 months to 2 years to make up for the carbon emissions cost of producing and installing the wind turbine. This also depends on the size and location of the turbine. It seems to me that to reap any real benefits from a wind turbine you need to live in a rural environment and have a decent amount of wind. Wind turbines are really not worth the cost if you are living in an urban environment. However, as the cost of energy rises and the cost of the technology decreases, and the technology improves in general, wind turbines are quickly becoming a more and more viable solution for alternative energy no matter where you live.