Academic Reading Sample
Wind Power in the US
Prompted by the oil crises of the 1970s, a wind-power industry
flourished briefly in the United States. But then world oil prices
dropped, and funding for research into renewable energy was cut. By
the mid 1980s US interest in wind energy as a large-scale source of
energy had almost disappeared. The development of wind power at
this time suffered not only from badly designed equipment, but also
from poor long-term planning, economic projections that were too
optimistic and the difficulty of finding suitable locations for the
wind turbines.
Only now are technological advances beginning to offer hope that
wind power will come to be accepted as a reliable and important
source of electricity. There have been significant successes in
California, in particular, where wind farms now have a capacity of
1500 megawatts, comparable to a large nuclear or fossil-fuelled
power station, and produce 1.5 per cent of the state's
electricity.
Nevertheless, in the U.S., the image of wind power is still
distorted by early failures. One of the most persistent criticisms
is that wind power is not a significant energy resource.
Researchers at the Battelle Northwest Laboratory, however, estimate
that today wind turbine technology could supply 20 per cent of the
electrical power the country needs. As a local resource, wind power
has even greater potential. Minnesota's energy commission
calculates that a wind farm on one of the state's south western
ridges could supply almost all that state's electricity. North
Dakota alone has enough sites suitable for wind farms to supply
more than a third of all electricity consumed in the continental
US.
The prevailing notion that wind power is too costly results
largely from early research which focused on turbines with huge
blades that stood hundreds of metres tall. These machines were not
designed for ease of production or maintenance, and they were
enormously expensive. Because the major factors influencing the
overall cost of wind power are the cost of the turbine and its
supporting systems, including land, as well as operating and
maintenance costs, it is hardly surprising that it was thought at
the time that wind energy could not be supplied at a commercially
competitive price. More recent developments such as those seen on
California wind farms have dramatically changed the economic
picture for wind energy. These systems, like installations in
Hawaii and several European countries, have benefited from the
economies of scale that come through standardised manufacturing and
purchasing. The result has been a dramatic drop in capital costs:
the installed cost of new wind turbines stood at $1000 per kilowatt
in 1993, down from about $4000 per kilowatt in 1980, and continues
to fall. Design improvements and more efficient maintenance
programs for large numbers of turbines have reduced operating costs
as well. The cost of electricity delivered by wind farm turbines
has decreased from about 30 cents per kilowatt-hour to between 7
and 9 cents, which is generally less than the cost of electricity
from conventional power stations. Reliability has also improved
dramatically. The latest turbines run more than 95 per cent of the
time, compared with around 60 per cent in the early 1980s. Another
misconception is that improved designs are needed to make wind
power feasible. Out of the numerous wind turbine designs proposed
or built by inventors or developers, the propeller-blade type,
which is based on detailed analytical models as well as extensive
experimental data, has emerged as predominant among the more than
20,000 machines now in commercial operation world-wide. Like the
gas-driven turbines that power jet aircraft, these are
sophisticated pieces of rotating machinery. They are already highly
efficient, and there is no reason to believe that other
configurations will produce major benefits. Like other ways of
generating electricity, wind power does not leave the environment
entirely unharmed. There are many potential problems, ranging from
interference with telecommunications to impact on wildlife and
natural habitats. But these effects must be balanced against those
associated with other forms of electricity generation. Conventional
power stations impose hidden costs on society, such as the control
of air pollution, the management of nuclear waste and global
warming. As wind power has been ignored in the US over the past few
years, expertise and commercial exploitation in the field have
shifted to Europe. The European Union spends 10 times as much as
the US government on research and development of wind energy. It
estimates that at least 10 per cent of Europe's electrical power
could be supplied by land-based wind-turbines using current
technology. Indeed, according to the American Wind Energy
Association, an independent organisation based in Washington,
Denmark, Britain, Spain and the Netherlands will each surpass the
US in the generating capacity of wind turbines installed during the
rest of the decade.
Glossary
fossil fuel: coal, oil and natural gas
kilowatt: 1,000 watts; a watt is a unit of power
kilowatt-hour: one kilowatt for a period of one hour
megawatt: one million watts
wind farm: a group of wind turbines in one location producing a
large amount of electricity
wind turbine: a machine which produces energy when the wind turns
its blades
Questions 1 - 5
Complete the summary below using words from the box. Write your
answers in boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet.
NB There are more words or phrases than you will need to fill
the gaps. You may use any word or phrase more than once.
Example
The failure during the late 1970s and early 1980s of an attempt
to establish a widespread wind power industry in the United States
resulted largely from the ...(1)... in oil prices during this
period. The industry is now experiencing a steady ...(2)... due to
improvements in technology and an increased awareness of the
potential in the power of wind. The wind turbines that are now
being made, based in part on the ...(3)... of wide-ranging research
in Europe, are easier to manufacture and maintain than their
predecessors. This has led wind-turbine makers to be able to
standardise and thus minimise ...(4)... . There has been growing
...(5)... of the importance of wind power as an energy source.
Questions 6 - 10
Look at the following issues (Questions 6-10) and the list of
implications below (A-C). Match each issue with the correct
implication. Write the correct letter A-C in boxes 6-10 on your
answer sheet.
N.B. You may use any letter more than once.
Example
The current price of one wind-generated kilowatt... Answer A
Issues
6. The recent installation of systems taking advantage of
economies of scale ...
7. The potential of meeting one fifth of current US energy
requirements by wind power ...
8. The level of acceptance of current wind turbine technology
...
9. A comparison of costs between conventional and wind power
sources ...
10. The view of wind power in the European Union ...
Implications
A provides evidence against claims that electricity produced
from wind power is relatively expensive.
B supports claims that wind power is an important source of
energy.
C opposes the view that wind power technology requires further
development.
