One of the biggest gripes about wind energy, as with most alternative energy, is that it's too expensive. We know that wind energy has become cost-competitive with coal power (in some parts of the world), but the American Wind Energy Association says that it's also becoming cost-competitive with natural gas too.
Wind’s costs have dropped over the past two years, with power purchase agreements being signed in the range of 5 to 6 cents per kilowatt-hour recently.
Gas is pretty clean for a fossil fuel. But when it is burned, it is still a carbon that was otherwise locked up for long-term storage that has now been transformed into additional CO2 that has been dumped into the atmosphere. Unfortunately, gas is a more expensive option than coal, so shifting from gas to wind doesn't do as much good as it would if it was helping to displace more coal burning power.
Do you think wind energy is the future of the smart grid?
[Photo: snurb/Flickr]
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