Sweden’s gleaming wind park—the $280 million project, one of the world’s largest, that was built by Swedish power company Vattenfall—testifies to the remarkable rise of wind energy. Wind is no longer a quirky alternative, but a mainstream power source used in 26 nations, including the United States.But the wind park is entering service at a time when wind energy is coming under sharper scrutiny from energy experts who question its reliability as a source of power.For starters, wind does not blow all the time. When it does, it does not necessarily do so during periods of high demand for electricity. That makes wind a shaky replacement for more dependable, if polluting, energy sources like oil, coal and natural gas. Moreover, to capture the best breezes, wind farms are often built far from where the demand for electricity is highest. The power they generate must then be carried over long distances on high-voltage lines. In Denmark, which pioneered wind energy in Europe, construction of wind farms has stagnated in recent years. The Danes export much of their wind-generated electricity to Norway and Sweden because it comes in unpredictable surges that often outstrip demand. In 2003, Ireland put a moratorium on connecting wind farms to its electricity grid because of the strains that power surges were putting on the network.As wind energy has matured as an industry, its image has changed—from a clean, even elegant, alternative to fossil fuels to a renewable energy source with advantages and drawbacks, like any other.“One of the big problems with wind is that people tend to get hyped up about it, very emotional,” said Euan C. Blauvelt, research director of a London-based independent market research firm. “The difference is that the arguments are becoming more rational.”With 11,575 megawatts, the United States is the world’s third largest wind country, after Germany and Spain, and it is adding more capacity than any other. Among new countries with significant wind capacity are Britain, Canada, Italy, Japan and the Netherlands.Christian Kjaer, the chief executive of the European Wind Energy Association in Brussels, said wind energy would benefit from two parallel trends: rising oil prices and a global push to tax carbon-dioxide emissions. Germany, where 20,000 wind turbines generate 5 per cent of the electricity, is running out of places to put the turbines because of restrictions on the location and height of the devices. Sweden has historically invested little in wind projects because it has two reliable sources of energy, nuclear and hydro, which each supply roughly half its power. While Swedes staunchly support wind energy, they are as susceptible to the not-in-my-backyard opposition as people elsewhere. For years, residents opposed the wind farm near Malmo after the builders obtained permission to raise the height of the towers. But the campaign to block the project failed.
