WIND VS. COALA COMPARISON OF ENERGY GENERATION

Abigail Abshere

HARNESSING THE WIND

• Most wind energy is harnessed via turbines that can be as tall as a 20-story building with three rotating blades.

• Wind causes the blades to spin, turning a shaft connected to a generator, which produces electricity.

http://www.uml.edu/

ENERGY FROM COAL• Pulverized Coal Combustion systems generate electricity through a careful process

conducted on a mass scale.

• The coal is milled into a fine powder to increase its surface are and allow it to burn faster. The powdered coal is then blown into a combustion chamber in a boiler, where it is burnt at high temperatures. The hot gases and heat energy created converts water running through tubes lining the boiler into steam.

• The steam is moved into a turbine with thousands of propeller-like blades, which are pushed and cause the turbine shaft to rotate at high speeds. A generator mounted to one end of the turbine shaft contains carefully wound wire coils. The coils are rapidly rotated in a strong magnetic field, generating electricity. The steam is condensed and returned to the boiler for another round of heating.

http://www.worldcoal.org/

COST OF WIND ENERGY

• The cost of the turbine itself makes up 70% of the expenses associated with using wind energy. The remaining 30% is attributed to the construction and installation of the turbine.

• After the capital costs, the maintenance of the turbine costs very little, and the expected life is 20 years or longer.

• Wind power is comparatively one of the cheapest forms of energy production, with prices still declining every year.

• Backyard turbines can be purchased and installed for around $4,000.

COST OF COAL

• Obtaining the actual coal to be used in factories is steadily becoming more expensive as less and less of it is available to be mined.

• Further costs lie in the construction, operation, and maintenance of factories where coal energy is produced.

• A single unit IGCC factory using CCS has an overnight capital cost of $6,599 ($/kw).

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF WIND ENERGY

• Wind energy has little to no environmental impact. Turbines produce no air or water pollution.

• Some people do not like the impact that wind turbines have on the aesthetics of an area, or complain about the noise that they make. These are essentially the only drawbacks that could potentially be labeled as ‘environmental.’

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF COAL ENERGY

• Through the process of creating energy from coal, there are a great number of negative environmental impacts.

• Acid mine drainage, air pollution from greenhouse gases and particulate matter, carbon monoxide emission, coal fires, coal combustion waste, coal sludge (or slurry), forest destruction from mountaintop removal mining, loss or degradation of groundwater, radical disturbance of farmland, mercury emissions, and waste coal are just a handful of these effects.

HAZARDS OF WIND ENERGY

• The only safety concern of wind turbines is their tendency to kill birds and bats. However, power lines, cars, and high rise buildings kill many, many more birds and bats than turbines do.

• Wind turbines are quite safe for humans.

HAZARDS OF COAL ENERGY

• There are several hazards to human life involved with producing coal energy.

• Among those hazards are coal dust in the air, coal fires in factories, flooding caused by mountaintop removal mining, degradation of groundwater, and heavy metals released during mining and burning of coal leading to metal poisoning.

• Coal factories are a dangerous and toxic environment for all biological life. Careful measures must be taken to create a less dangerous working situation for people mining coal or working in coal burning factories.

CONCLUSION

• Wind energy is, overall, a safer, cheaper, and cleaner source of energy than coal burning. The hazards and damage to the environment associated with coal burning outweigh the energy being produced, especially considering the existence of another option that is better in many fundamental aspects. If the use of wind energy continues to grow at its current rate, it is estimated that up to a third of the world’s energy will be provided by wind generation by 2050.

WORKS CITED• "Coal & Electricity." Coal Electricity, Coal Power Plants. World Coal Association.

Web. 6 May 2015.

• "Environmental Impacts of Coal." SourceWatch. SourceWatch, 16 Mar. 2015. Web. 6 May 2015.

• "The Cost of Wind Energy in the U.S." The Cost of Wind Energy in the U.S. American Wind Energy Association. Web. 6 May 2015.

• "The Escalating Cost of Coal." The Escalating Cost of Coal. EDF Energy. Web. 6 May 2015.

• "U.S. Energy Information Administration - EIA - Independent Statistics and Analysis." U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). U.S. Department of Energy. Web. 6 May 2015.

• "Wind Power Information, Wind Power Facts - National Geographic." National Geographic. National Geographic Society. Web. 6 May 2015.