Question: Can wind contribute significantly to electricity production?

...Wind Energy makes a difference...

Wind Turbines have grown dramatically in size and power output.

A typical Danish wind turbine of 1980 vintage had a 26 kW generator and a rotor diameter of 10.5 metres. A modern wind turbine has a rotor diameter of 54 metres and a 1000 kW generator. It will produce between 2 and 3 million kilowatt hours in a year. This is equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of 500 to 800 European households.

The latest generation of wind turbines has a 1,000-2,500 kW generator and a 50-80 metre rotor diameter.

The 80 wind turbines (160 MW total) in the most recent offshore wind farm in the North Sea off the coast of Denmark, Horns Rev, will provide an annual energy output of 600 million kWh (600 GWh), equivalent to the electricity consumption of 150,000 Danish households, or the equivalent of powering all the refrigerators in Denmark (population 5 million).

In Europe more than 17,000 megawatts of wind power were on line as of January 2002, covering the average domestic electricity consumption of ten million households.

Worldwide 24,000 MW have been installed. This is equivalent to the amount of nuclear power installed worldwide by 1971.

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