Energy is a hot topic in today's political and business arenas. This sample essay on energy articulates how wind power can be used as a sustainable source of energy to help conserve the earth’s natural resources. 

The power of wind 

Wind is created by the rotation of the earth and the solar energy of the sun heating up the Earth’s atmosphere unevenly. Hot air contains less weight than cold air, which causes the hot air to rise. When hot air rises, cool air drops down to occupy the space that the hot air has just abandoned, and this friction and motion creates gusts of wind and enables the wind to blow through the atmosphere. Due to global warming, Earth has the potential to generate unlimited wind energy.

Recent technological advancements and scientific innovations have allowed scientific engineers to build wind turbines that can utilize the energy that is provided by the wind and convert that energy into electrical power. Wind turbines should be supported as a valid source of energy because the turbines can effectively and efficiently use the wind to generate electricity in a manner that conserves energy, maximizes the earth’s natural resources and protects the environment. 

Wind creates kinetic energy for power use

The motion of the wind creates kinetic energy, and recent technological innovations have enabled the scientific community to develop and implement methods of using wind turbines to generate and sustain electricity from the kinetic energy of the wind. A wind turbine is a tower or shaft with three or more blades protruding from the very top of the shaft.  

When powerful winds cause these blades to rotate and propel, the blades capture the kinetic energy of the wind, the shaft transfers the energy from the hub of the rotor to a generator, and the generator then converts the kinetic energy into electricity. Wind turbines can produce enough electricity to successfully power houses, buildings or entire neighborhoods, depending on the amount of wind turbines on the given wind farm and on the conditions of the wind in the area.

Additional Reading: Read more about wind energy.

The benefits of wind energy use 

An important reason why the United States would benefit from supporting the use of wind turbines as a prominent source of electrical energy instead of fossil fuels is that wind turbines can provide people and towns with electricity in a way that conserves energy and that reduces the overall cost of purchasing electricity.

Wind versus fossil fuels

The burning of fossil fuels is the traditional method of generating electricity in the United States and most of the world. Because manufacturing electricity from the burning of fossil fuels requires extracting and burning several materials from the earth, this process of generating electricity can be very wasteful to the earth’s resources and highly expensive for consumers to purchase (although fracking is reducing the price of natural gas in America). However, wind energy blowing through the atmosphere is a free, limitless and effective source of renewable energy that enables people to generate electricity while also conserving the natural resources on the planet.  

Thus, energy derived from wind farms are much cheaper and more affordable than energy produced from the burning of fossil fuels.  Families, businesses and towns that allow wind turbine farms to generate their electricity would benefit from paying substantially lower prices in their electrical bills, which can significantly enable families and businesses to retain a larger portion of their income and to inject more spending money into the economy.   

Another advantage of wind turbines being used to generate electricity is that the process is much more clean and healthy for the environment than the burning of fossil fuels.  Many scientific research studies indicate that burning fossil fuels to produce energy is detrimental to the environment, for the process contaminates the air in the atmosphere with harmful pollutants, emits dangerous carbon-based chemicals that damage the earth’s ozone layer, and facilitates the destructive trend of global warming or climate change.

However, using wind turbines to generate electricity is very clean and safe for the atmosphere and for the environment, as the process emits a minimal amount of contamination or pollution into the air. Thus, wind energy can effectively produce electricity in a manner that protects the environment, and this can enable communities that generate electrical power with wind turbines to enjoy a cleaner quality of air and to improve the health of the citizens or workers in the community.  

Additionally, the United States deciding to shift its primary source of power from fossil fuels to wind energy would reduce the rate of global warming and diminish the dramatic effects of climate change, such as the glaciers melting, the sea levels rising and the storms intensifying.

Budget cuts restrict efforts 

Although enabling wind turbines to become the prominent source of electricity generation in the United States can require a significant amount of effort from the government, the scientific community and our society, the effort would be rewarded with a cheaper source of electrical energy and with a cleaner environment. Read more about the wind energy boom in America and how it effects pollution and the economy.

At a time when environmental hazards are amplifying due to the excessive accumulation of contamination and pollution in the atmosphere, the US would benefit from taking action immediately to prevent these problems from becoming more severe and destructive. Wind turbines provide us with a valuable opportunity to generate renewable energy with a process that is affordable, that maximizes the earth’s natural resources and that can help protect our species from the threat of dangerous environmental problems.

References

The US Department of Energy: Wind Program; https://www1.eere.energy.gov/wind/index.html

USA Today: Fossil fuels are to blame, world scientists conclude; By Patrick O'Driscoll and Dan Vergano; 3/1/07; http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/weather/climate/globalwarming/2007-01-30-ipcc-report_x.htm