The Effects Of Windpower And Domestic Oil Drilling

Lately, windpower has emerged as one of the most popular sources of alternative energy. In fact, the popularity of windpower as an energy source has received a resurgence after many decades of minimal use.

Much like the gas crisis of the 1970's ushered in the notion of a need for alternative energy sources the threat of global warming has prompted people to look for both increased domestic oil drilling and for the need to expand windpower potential. While domestic drilling may have its benefits (it also has two major disadvantages) it would be best to expand alternative energy methods, like windpower as well.

Looking at Oil Drilling

When it comes to the drilling of oil domestically, many people look at the environmental problems that may be inherent. While this may be true, even if domestic drilling was increased there is still the problem that people may not invest into exploratory oil drilling due to the costs involved.

For example, if one wished to drill for oil off the coast of Florida not only would the drills need to be built and placed out on the sea, it is widely understood that there is no oil to be found anywhere above 7 miles below the "floor" of ocean off the coast. That means, $100 million dollars would need to be spent before even arriving at the point to really begin drilling for oil.

Furthermore, there is no guarantee that oil will be found. As such, the need for windpower as an alternative for common fossil fuel energy sources is critical.

Windpower Farms

For those not familiar how large scale windpower is harnessed, this is usually done in the form of wind farms. These windpower farms are essentially large scale areas that are comprised of a number of modern day windmills that harness windpower and then start the process of converting it into electricity.

This is a cheap and effective method of converting natural sources into electricity. However, do to the fact that the volume of wind farms is relatively limited in size and scope. As such, the ability to completely harness the full potential of windpower has not even come close to being tapped.

Also these windpower turbines are gigantic creating an unsightly horizon wherever they are placed. Windpower turbines also only produce power 1/8 of the time that they are running, unless they are in very windy climate, like Scotland.

In time, however, it is probably more than likely that windpower will imporve and gain in popularity as more public demand for alternative means of energy becomes required. This will lead, hopefully, to more windpower farms and more expansive utilization of windpower as an energy source.

Gas is expensive and running out. We need to find a way to use alternative energy so we stop depleting our resources. We need to harness the power of the sun, wind and water in order to power our homes, and we need to find a way to finance the whole thing without using private investors, who seldom want to take the risk of investing in new industries with high costs.

Until the financial problems are solved, I don't see windpower or other alternative energy sources hitting the mainstream any time soon.