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The Future of Wind Power

Wind energy is a clean, renewable way of generating electricity. In the future, provided costs are reined in, the primary focus will be offshore development. 

Cost and Intermittence

The pros and cons of wind power are still the subject of heated debate. There are two main arguments against wind power:

• It is more expensive to produce wind-sourced electricity than electricity from conventional sources, such as nuclear and thermal energy. This means that wind power needs to be subsidized, mainly in the form of preferential feed-in tariffs.
• Wind power is intermittent because winds are unpredictable and uncontrollable. This may result in large swings in output and even shutdowns. However, grid operators are used to dealing with the problem of intermittence, which is also an issue with other sources of energy, like solar. It is estimated that a large-scale grid can integrate a wind energy penetration rate of 20% without experiencing major technical problems.

Other solutions are also being developed to address the problem of interrupted power supply. One answer is to set up interconnected groups of wind turbines over extended areas in order to leverage their combined energy and ensure a guaranteed minimum amount of power. Research is also being carried out on ways to store large quantities of surplus electricity, particularly through the use of batteries.

A Fast-Growing Industry

Despite these difficulties, wind power is rapidly developing in practically every part of the world, with growth rates ranging from 10 to 40% per year. Although the pace of growth slackened in 2013, installed global capacity reached an impressive 318 GW, for an increase of 200 GW in five years¹.
The European Union is particularly well positioned, thanks to its assertive policy of developing renewable energies. In 2013, wind power accounted for 117 GW of installed capacity in the E.U., meeting 8% of its electricity demand.² The industry continues to grow despite a decrease in 2013.

 http://www.planete-energies.com/en/medias/close/future-wind-power