Wind Energy

Along with solar, wind power is touted as one of the solutions to our energy problem, but wind turbines have their critics. Standing at 100 meters tall and boasting blades that equal the wing span of a Boeing 747, their size can be intimidating and their dependability is in question due to their reliance on a capricious resource. This month on Comment:Visions, we look at wind power and meet Christina Grumstrup Sorensen, a mechanical engineer based in Copenhagen and Senior Vice President of one of Denmark’s leading energy providers.

Sorensen is pragmatic on the visibility issue. She explains: “Obviously you can’t avoid seeing them, they have to be in the landscape as they have to catch the wind. That’s how they produce the energy”. There are other options, such as relocating the turbines to the ocean, but they too have their drawbacks. “If you move them to the sea the impact on the people and on the living areas will be less, but then, of course, you have other issues with birds and fish. But in fact, our initial studies of the wind farms that have been installed for ten years show that the effects that we were most worried about proved to be much less than we anticipated.”