Making energy clean, safe, and affordable.

• Author: Blittersdorf, David
• Position: Science and Technology - Statistical Data Included

THERE IS A WIND TURBINE in your future or, more likely, many of them. From small backyard units to tall ones on mountain ridges and rising out of the sea, wind turbines and the power they generate are expected to become major contributors to the U.S.'s energy supply. Here's why:

* Wind is local. We don't import it, ship it, or fight wars over it.

* Wind turbines make poor targets for terrorist attacks.

* Wind power can keep the lights on when all other energy sources are blacking out.

* Wind power is clean. It doesn't foul the air, water, or soil.

* Wind is renewable and plentiful. We won't run out of wind.

A major obstacle in the past to wind energy has been the cost of the technology to produce it. However, since the 1970s, when Congress established the National Renewable Energy Lab, wind energy generation costs have fallen 90%. They are now as low as tour cents per kilowatt hour, competitive with other energy sources, and are still dropping as wind projects get larger and newer technologies are used.

With costs going down, interest in wind energy is moving beyond the core of "true believers" and going mainstream. More utilities are beginning to invest in wind energy and to plan for it to have a growing role in the future.

Meanwhile, Europe is far ahead of the U.S. Denmark alone generates nearly 20% of its electricity from the wind. Germany and Spain are also big wind energy users. In total, there are about 35,000 wind turbines generating power worldwide and producing 20,000,000,000 kilowatt hours each year.

A recent study in Denmark found that, by 2017, wind could provide 10% of world electricity needs and could supply 500,000,000 average European households. In the U.S., wind has the potential to generate as much as 40% of the nation's electrical needs in the next 20 years. Yet, at present, it provides less than one percent of America's energy needs.

While the U.S. pioneered the technology, Europe has been gaining economic benefits in new production and jobs in this clean energy industry. Many countries there have government policies that support renewable energy, while U.S. energy policy still strongly favors fossil fuels.

America has had a century of depending heavily on oil for its energy needs. In the early 1970s, about one-third of that oil came from outside of the country. Today, nearly two-thirds is imported. The U.S. exports over $70,000,000,000 each year for oil. Dependence on these foreign sources makes America's energy supply unstable and creates national security problems. Importing oil also opens up the nation to risk of accidents and oil spills that cause significant damage to birds and marine life.

Trying to offset some of that dependence with more U.S. oil, such as that in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, risks destroying fragile ecosystems. Petroleum demand will outstrip supply in the first half of this century...