subject: Us Wind Energy And Where It Is Going [print this page] US wind energy is on the riseUS wind energy is on the rise. Many areas of the world are way ahead of the US in terms of home wind energy implementation, but the United States has a lot of potential because of the huge amount of open surface land area it has to work with.
These are the areas where improvement in the aerodynamics and in other areas of technology will need to be made for the US to catch up with the rest of the world in terms of wind energy...
Government subsidies - As the United States has become more and more dependent on oil from foreign countries, the government has come to realize that they're going to have to subsidize the next wave of energy production in some way shape or form. We have in essence gotten hooked on cheap fossil fuels supplied by countries that do not like us. To be successful in this area, something about that is going to require some form of government intervention. Whether it be in the form of a tax credit or not is relevant -what is more important is the fact that consumers no that they can purchase these devices without the heavy upfront costs that would be associated with them without that support.
Local community acceptance - There are many communities around the country that do not want a wind turbine anywhere nearby. While it is uncommon to find neighborhoods and other locations that are adamantly and totally against wind energy devices, it is a lot more common to find communities putting restrictions on where exactly you can locate them and what they can or cannot look like.
Low speed cut-in speed - As manufacturers improve on technology, we will find that more and more of these devices can function in variable wind environments. This is going to be a key to the rapid and ubiquitous proliferation of wind energy devices in this country.
There is only so much of the country now that can be powered by wind because much of the United States has very relatively low wind conditions. The home wind turbine technology is not caught up to the point where it can easily make massive amounts of electricity in low wind areas. But, as manufacturers spend more and more money on research and development, we will find that the initial speeds at which these things can get started dropping dramatically.
In summary, US wind energy is improving but it is not there yet.
