Disadvantages of Wind Energy

Wind energy provides clean and effective way of producing power for individuals or businesses. Wind turbines can be built in the form of vertical axis and horizontal axis. Horizontal wind turbines are the most common type of wind turbines to be built across the world. Though wind energy is another form of renewable energy that has its own advantages, there some of the disadvantages that makes it bit difficult to adopt it on a massive scale. However, due to continuous improvement in the area of technology and engineering, there is a significant improvement in the growth rate of wind energy in the last few years. Wind turbines have some impact on wildlife and surrounding environment which contribute towards disadvantages of wind energy.


Here’s are some of the major disadvantages of wind energy.

1. Noise Disturbances: Though wind energy is non-polluting, the turbines may create a lot of noise. This alone is the reason that wind farms are not built near residential areas. People who live near-by often complaint of huge noise that comes from wind turbines. The visual pollution is another reason why people do not find it attractive to install it in their backyard.

2. Threat to Wildlife: Due to large scale construction of wind turbines on remote location, it could be a threat to wild life near by. Wind turbines in particular can also be harmful to birds and other flying creatures. Studies conducted to determine the effect of wind turbines on birds and animals suggest that animals see wind turbines as a threat to their life. Also, wind turbines require them to be dig deep into the earth which could have negative effect on the underground habitats.

3. Wind Can Never be Predicted: Yet another main disadvantage of wind energy is that winds can never be predicted. In areas where wind doesn’t blow reliably or winds strength is too low to support wind turbine, solar or geothermal energy could prove to be great alternatives. That is one of the reasons why most of the companies study the whole area and determine wind turbine layout, power curve, thrust curve, long term wind speed before deploying wind turbines. Moreover strong tornadoes or deadly hurricanes can prove harmful to the wind turbines.

4. Suited To Particular Region : Wind turbines are suited to the coastal regions which receive wind throughout the year to generate power. Therefore, countries that do not have any coastal or hilly areas may not be able to take any advantage of wind power. The location of a wind power system is crucial, and one should determine the best possible location for wind turbine in order to capture as much wind as possible. Just like solar energy which relies heavily on sun to produce power, wind energy needs high speed winds to produce power on constant basis.

5. Visual Impact : Though many people believe that wind turbines actually look nice but majority of them disagree. People consider wind turbines to have an undesirable experience. Petitions usually come in court before any proposed wind farm development but few people think otherwise and feel they should be kept in tact for everyone to enjoy its beauty.

6. Safety Concerns: In the last couple of decades, the frequency of tornadoes, hurricanes and cyclones have increased considerably. Now these severe storms can cause extensive damage to the wind turbines and can be a safety hazard to the people working in these wind farms. The damage may cause huge damage to wind turbines and permanent disability to humans in some cases.

Like any other source of energy, wind power has its own disadvantages. Thought it may not be practically possible to use wind energy at every location as not all locations receive high speed winds but areas which receive chilly winds can use this source of energy on a massive scale to cut down demand for fossil fuels. Although these disadvantages make it look that wind energy may not suitable for every country but its advantages make it a great source of energy.

Image credit: Washington DNR

