A wind turbine in a field in France. Photo courtesy of Michael Ashcroft
Clean
Wind energy does not emit any form of pollution in operation, though the manufacture of the turbines will have associated emissions.
Wind as a free resource
With wind energy there are no fuel concerns. As long as the wind blows within appropriate speed limits (not too fast or too slowly), wind turbines operate.
Not only that, but wind is freely available in all countries; it does not need to be imported or sourced.
Localisable
Due to their nature, wind turbines can be placed in a variety of rather inhospitable locations. In fact, they are ideal for mountainous/exposed regions where regular power plants are unsuitable, because of the strong winds.
Scalable
Wind turbines come in a variety of sizes each rated to a different power output. A medium sized wind turbine could help to provide energy for a small, isolated community, for example, which is inaccessible to regular energy supplies.
Domestic turbines are available and can easily power a home, however only if the turbine is places in an exposed region with high winds.
Decentralised
Rather than one large power plant generating large amounts of electricity, many smaller wind turbines can produce the same amount. This means there's less chance of a large failure and it's also less susceptible to some sort of interference. In fact, wind power is ideal for microgeneration.
That said, wind energy does suffer extremely from variations in availability of the wind, so no amount of installed wind turbines could ever replace a base-load supply without being coupled with an energy storage system (currently not realistically possible).
Return to alternative energy sources from advantages of wind energy