Summary: Wind is a clean and readily available renewable energy resource with the potential to significantly meet the world’s ever-growing energy demands. Its benefits are endless and thanks to new technologies that are gaining momentum during the fourth industrial revolution (4IR), it is becoming an increasingly cost-effective and viable long-term green solution.

Wind energy is an important component of ambitious renewable energy targets set by governments and international organisations, including the EU whose latest renewable energy target is 32% by 2030, and the UN, six of whose 17 Sustainable Development Goals focus on combatting climate change and providing clean affordable energy. Indeed, according to a recent Global Market Insights report, the global wind energy market is projected to surpass $170 billion by 2024.

Scaling up renewable energy to match today’s oil and gas industry is still a huge undertaking, but countries and international bodies should continue to set ambitious targets and encourage businesses and consumers to meet these goals.

Wind, like solar, is a clean and readily available renewable energy resource, which has the potential to significantly reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and meet the world’s ever-growing energy demands. Its benefits are endless and thanks to new technologies that are gaining momentum during the fourth industrial revolution (4IR), it is becoming an increasingly cost-effective and viable long-term green solution. 

The US pioneered early research and development of commercial wind turbines, installing the world’s first wind farm in 1980, and since then countries around the world have installed vast wind farms, both on and offshore. Every day, hundreds of thousands of wind turbines around the world capture the wind’s power and convert it to electricity. Wind energy is an important component of ambitious renewable energy targets set by governments and international organisations, including the EU whose latest renewable energy target is 32% by 2030, and the UN, six of whose 17 Sustainable Development Goals focus on combatting climate change and providing clean affordable energy. Indeed, according to a recent Global Market Insights report, the global wind energy market is projected to surpass $170 billion by 2024.

While renewable energy still only accounts for a small percentage of the world’s energy generation capacity, new technology is giving the sector a major boost. Offshore wind farms, typically constructed in the ocean, have the potential to significantly increase the use of wind power around the world. Offshore wind speeds tend to be faster than on land, and they enjoy vast open spaces in which large numbers of turbines can be erected. For example, one of the world’s largest offshore wind farms, due to open in June 2018 and located off the coast of England, has the potential to power 500,000 homes in the UK. Other countries are following suit with the offshore approach, for example the US opened its first offshore wind farm in 2016. While a number of these projects are still in planning phase or under construction, even as a subsector of the wind every industry, the global offshore wind energy market is projected to reach $57.2 billion by 2022, up from $20.3 billion in 2016, according to Zion Market Research. 

A key benefit of wind energy includes the ability to generate power 24 hours a day, domestically. Not only does this reduce a country’s dependence on foreign energy, it also creates local employment opportunities and provides a boost to local infrastructure. Wind turbines can provide energy to rural areas, and do not produce water or air pollution. In the US, out of all renewable energy produced in 2017, 21 percent came from wind, while just 7 percent came from solar power. 

Drawbacks to this form of energy remain, however; wind turbines are not practical for densely populated areas and can be noisy and hurt flying wildlife (birds and bats). Concerns also exist around the visual impacts of windfarms to the landscape, as in order to be effective, wind turbines need to be situated high above any obstacles that would block the wind. 

Until now, the development of large wind farms, particularly offshore, has also been hindered by high costs, both in terms of the upfront cost of building and installing the equipment, and then maintaining it. The development of new technology in 4IR, however, is driving costs down, which in turn is having a positive effect on new projects both on and offshore. In the UK, for example, the cost of energy from offshore wind has fallen by 32 percent over the past five years, and China’s offshore wind capacity looks set to increase fourfold by 2020, thanks to advances in technology. 

Drone technology is increasingly used for the inspection of wind turbines, and artificial intelligence is being used to discover complex fault patterns. Intelligent physics modelling is being used to improve performance levels. The World Bank and the Technical University of Denmark recently launched a new Global Wind Atlas, a free web-based tool to help policymakers and investors identify promising areas for wind power generation virtually anywhere in the world, which is based on the latest modelling technologies, and in countries with lower wind speeds such as the UAE, technology is increasingly being used to produce power from wind.    

The statistics speak for themselves. Wind energy is on the rise and wind infrastructure is becoming more commonplace, thanks to new technology driving down costs, and the increasing development of offshore projects. Scaling up renewable energy to match today’s oil and gas industry is still a huge undertaking, but countries and international bodies should continue to set ambitious targets and encourage businesses and consumers to meet these goals. 

As we continue to burn through our supply of fossil and nuclear fuels, we must turn to alternative, green energy sources to meet our demands, and wind, much like solar, is a key part of the equation and has huge potential to meet the Earth’s rapidly growing energy demands and to produce energy in a clean and sustainable way. 


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