Wind power: Future lies within

Abstract

Icreasing demands of electricity, to reduce reliance on fossil fuels, reduction in greenhouse gases, increasing oil prices and climate changes are the main factors which motivate utilization of renewable energy technologies in the world. Wind Energy has made a significant progress over the last two decades and evolved as one of the mature and fastest growing renewable energy technology due to its nature of intermittent, inexhaustible, abundant environmental friendly source of electricity generation. This article discusses the history and basic of wind technology, i.e. trends in rating, size and technological advancement in wind turbines. In this article the progress of cumulative and annual installed wind power capacity in the world are also presented. Cost of electricity generated by wind has a sharp decline in the last decade, which makes wind power very much competitive with conventional technologies. In this paper the growth of wind power, future aspects and challenges in India have been also discussed in detail.