WIND ENERGY in Argentina: advantages and disadvantages

The growth of the Energy wind It is a global phenomenon that has been exponentially occurring in many places in recent years. Argentina, for the large number of advantages what’s wrong with it. But it also has certain disadvantages.

This type of Energy alternative It is an abundant resource, fundamentally, in the South of our country, due to the strong winds registered in said area and which are fundamental for the installation of wind turbines. There are also projects in the Puna, the Andes mountains and even in some places in the Atlantic Coast.

According to experts, when the average of winds is greater than 4 m / s (about 14 km / h) it is possible to project the use of the wind resource. And its potential is so high in the Patagonia because there it reaches, on average, 9 m / s.

In fact, there are already around ten wind farms in Argentina, of which the Port Madryn It is one of the largest in South America, as it has an average capacity factor of 51% and winds that blow an average of 8.6 m / s, and can supply almost 400,000 homes.

The experiences of installing wind turbines connected to the public service network, which in most cases are managed by local electric cooperatives, are increasingly visible.

Expert projections indicate that 1,000 MW of installed capacity could be reached for the generation electrical in Argentina.

Without a doubt, the Energy wind It has become one of the ways to generate electricity in a renewable way and to low impact environmental, to which is added that it is cheap and efficient. In addition, it is a good business since for the owners of the land where it is carried out it is compatible with other uses, such as cattle raising and the farming.

But not all are advantages for this form of electricity generation, since it also has disadvantages, such as that the winds are not constant and that makes the production flow vary to an unpredictable level. Also its production of electrical energy produced is not storable, so it should be used directly, if not lost.

Advantages of wind energy

The Energy wind It has a series of advantages that provide incentives to implement it in the generation electrical national.

-Alternative energy

The wind is together with the solar energy and the hydroelectric, one of the alternative sources to the use of fuels fossil. It has even been used by humans for more than 5,000 years to move candles, mills and carry out other work, but it was not until 1890 that it began to be used to generate electricity.

–Renewable and inexhaustible

This means that the wind is a natural resource that can always be used as an original source to produce energy, which guarantees that its utility does not have an expiration date, as it does with Petroleum and the gas, which are fossil fuels. In fact, it is available almost everywhere on the planet.

–Cleans

It is a completely clean energy, one of its main advantages, since the production of turbines wind power does not produce any type of waste or gases pollutants. In this way it contributes to caring for the planet and ecosystem.

-Useable in low and large scale

Wind energy produced that with technological advances in the construction of turbines Y generators wind power enable it to be used in homes individually with a small mill, as well as large cities.

-Cheap energy

According to market data, he cost wind power generation for three decades has been plummeting, and it is considered to be the way of Energy alternative Cheaper compared to solar and hydro. Its price is already at the level of coal and nuclear energy.

Even more and more countries interested in investing in building from parks from mills wind power. For example, in 2010 the world’s wind power generation capacity was 197 thousand megawatts, while in 2018 it tripled when it reached 597 thousand megawatts.

-More efficient

In recent years, the potential of wind energy has increased greatly due to the significant technological development that took place and due to the greater efficiency of current turbines.

-Low cost of installation and maintenance

Today the building from parks wind power it’s simple and fast, because the wind equipment comes prefabricated and only has to be assembled at the destination. They are also low maintenance and after the turbines are installed the required labor is minimal. Experts assure that the most cumbersome today is due to external issues, that is, depending on formalities bureaucratic and problems administrative to mount the generation parks.

–Geographical independence

Wind energy favors the independence Y autonomy energetic, because it is available in all placesAlthough some countries have a higher wind index than others. The positive is that in some places it allows you to stop importing energy or to depend on other more expensive sources to generate your own.

-Useful for remote places

Another of the sales of wind energy is that it can be used in places far from large cities and in developing countries with poor infrastructure. Thus, it is possible to use the energy of the wind to generate electricity in isolated towns and in houses located in fields, mountains, coasts maritime or forests, which are outside the reach of the electricity grid.

–Generate jobs

The building of wind farms generates work in places where join, because it is necessary to put in conditions the ground and perform the premises facilities.

-It does not erode the soil

Wind farms have a very low impact on the soil erosion due to the absence of emission of polluting residues, and also the generation mills can be located in the sea.

–Business complement

As a business for those who own land, wind power is fully compatible with other activities such as farming and the cattle raising, so it is an economic complement and does not require specialization.

Disadvantages of wind energy

Beyond the big ones Benefits which has the implementation of the Energy windOn the other hand, there are certain disadvantages to this type of power generation source.

-Variation of the wind

Generally, the weather is unpredictable, something that causes that there is not always wind to take advantage of, so the generation of wind power it requires the support of other types of energy for the communities, to cover those moments in which it cannot produce electricity.

That is, as it is a resource of the nature, the wind varies in intensity, speed Y direction, something that cannot be predicted or planned for its use.

To get an idea, the wind turbines only work properly with gusts of wind between 10 km / h and 40 km / h. At lower speeds the energy is not profitable, but at higher levels it can cause a physical risk to the structure.

–Visual and sound impact

Another disadvantage of wind energy is that the construction of these parks implies a aesthetic impact at landscape because numerous mills are required to cover the electrical need of a community.

Also, the movement of the blades of the wind turbines emits sounds which can be annoying to nearby settlers. Although new developments are lessening this impact. Meanwhile, turbines can produce low frequency (20-200 hertz) noise from a 20 dB exposure. This means that the noise is practically inaudible, unless you are very close to the tower.

–Cannot store energy

On the other hand, the Energy generated by the wind cannot be stored, It must be consumed immediately when it occurs. Therefore, every community cannot depend exclusively on this source of electricity.

For this fact, it is necessary to store the energy generated by the wind in batteries to be able to have electricity when no wind. But these batteries are expensive and made from toxic materials.

-Environmental impact

In large wind turbines, the huge blades Y turbines they get to kill birds, bats and insects in important numbers.

-Requires a lot of land

Beyond that wind energy is an activity that can coexist with other businesses, it requires a huge land to install the mills or wind turbines, whose sizes require to be installed at a huge distance from each other.-

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