Philosophy of Quantitative Method

Introduction

Humanity may never have faced a bigger threat than climate change. For many countries around the world its effects are becoming reality; changing weather systems have resulted in powerful storms, extreme heatwaves and deadly wildfires.

International leaders are gripping to reach a consensus about how to limit global warming, but they are all agreed that renewable energy sources are a fundamental part of the solution.

I will be researching whether wind power is an effective energy source to help the UK reach its current energy needs.

Wind Power- How it works

As long as there is sun, there will be wind. Wind exists because the sun unevenly heats the surface of the Earth making warm air rise thus allowing cooler air to fill the space. Large movements of air produce wind. Scientists have used this principle in the creation of wind turbine.

Wind turbines convert the kinetic energy of the wind into mechanical energy to drive the turbines directly. As we can see in figure 1, huge blades are attached to a tall tower and a ‘nacelle’ which contains gears that link to the generator. Every time the wind blows, kinetic energy is captured and then transferred to the blades which then turn and drive the generator. This kinetic energy can then be turned into electricity.

Wind Power - statistics

Renewable energy produces more than 25% of the UK’s energy today and this is estimated to increase to 30% by 2020. The chart below shows which sources provided electricity for the UK in 2017*.

Of the 25% of renewably sourced UK electricity, 13% came from wind power in 2017. The UK is well placed to take advantage of wind power and has some of the best conditions in Europe with high wind speeds. It has made significant investments in onshore and offshore wind

farms and the impact of these are shown in the statistics in these sections.

In 2018 the equivalent of nearly 15 million homes in the UK were powered with wind energy and it is estimated that 15% of the UK’s electricity was generated by wind in the 12 months to March 2018. The table below shows that at particularly windy times (this relates to March 2018), the contribution of wind power to supplying the UK’s electricity was more than 27% as shown in figure 3.

Between July and September 2018 roughly a third of electricity was produced by a renewable source and through the most recent windy weather of March 2019, wind power peaked at 38% over a week-long period. It is estimated that by 2030 a third of the UK’s electricity could come from offshore wind power alone.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Wind Power

ADVANTAGES

• Wind power has many advantages. These include:
• Wind power is a renewable energy source. No harmful or polluting gases are produced from wind turbines.
• The UK has a windy climate so wind turbines work effectively.
• Wind turbines take up little space so the land can be used for other things such as farming (such as at Westertown farm- see figure 3)
• Wind turbines are an interesting piece of technology to look at.

DISADVANTAGES

• Wind turbines might be an eyesore for people who live near them.
• Wind farms can be noisy, they produce a humming noise that can disturb neighbors.
• Although in the UK, wind farms work effectively as it is quite windy, in other places they might not do such a good job. This is because the amount of energy relies on the amount of wind. If there is no wind there is no electricity.
• Wind turbines are very expensive to install and maintain.
• Wind turbines are unreliable- they don’t work well in very low winds or extremely high winds.
• Wind turbines can sometimes cause deforestation if they are installed in a wood or forest area.

Evaluation

In conclusion, wind turbines are a clean, green and renewable energy source. As long as wind power is used with other renewable energy sources it can be a very effective way to reach our energy needs. Wind turbines shouldn’t interfere with forests or woods and should only be installed in areas where the neighbors will not be disturbed. Although this technology is expensive, it does not cost the planet anything. Once turbines are installed they are actually a very effective way of producing energy. A standard wind turbine produces enough energy to power 1000 houses for a year. This fact, coupled with the UK’s suitable climate shows us that having lots of wind turbines in the UK would definitely help us meet our energy needs and reduce our dependency on fossil fuels.