While One Wind Turbine Idles, Others Elsewhere Will Turn

A lonely wind turbine installed in Saco last month has so far generated far more commentary than electricity. That should prove a point about wind power: One turbine is not a completely reliable source of alternative energy.

In order to displace fossil fuels in quantity, wind power requires multiple turbines in a variety of places.

That doesn’t mean Saco got a bad deal, and its turbine can still meet the city’s goal of 90,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity over the course of a year. At current rates, that would yield about $13,500 in revenue.

It’s just that average wind speeds, which the city used for its estimates, are just that: average. And so far, the wind at the Saco Island turbine site has been far below the 11 mph average previously observed there. In fact, the turbine had only netted the city $201 as of last week.

Still, wind power is a good idea – in fact, it’s growing rapidly worldwide.

Maine isn’t the only place with multiple wind farms in place or pending. At the end of 2007, although wind power represented just 1 percent of the world’s capacity, that was still an astounding 94.1 gigawatts – "giga" meaning "billion" – and capacity is expected to grow to 160 GW by 2010.

Denmark relies the most on wind power, with 19 percent of its electricity coming from it. Spain and Portugal are at 9 percent and Germany and Ireland at 6 percent. Germany has the largest installed capacity, with the United States second.

But with wind, which can’t rely on regular fuel deliveries or storage, both quantity and geographic dispersion count. Maine has attempted to identify locations where turbines can go, and if it wants to get in on its share of this growing power source, it should start permitting projects as quickly as possible.

The wind will blow if we use it or not – so we might as well use it.

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