Here are some other exciting advantages of celebrating Global Wind Day:
1. Creation of green jobs
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics declared that wind turbine technician is the fastest growing occupation, with the number of jobs expected to increase 108 percent between 2014 and 2024, resulting in 88,000 jobs. Wind power had a record growth year globally, too. Strong installation rates in China, the United States and Germany resulted in a 5-percent increase in global employment, to reach 1.1 million jobs, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). As a result, the workers and colleagues of this field, have increased during the last decade and it will increase in the following decades.
2. More power
The World Wind Energy Association reported that 2015 was a record-setting year for growth in wind energy capacity – 63,690 megawatts of wind energy capacity were added in 2015, bringing the total wind capacity to 435 gigawatts. And according to AWEA, wind energy was the largest source of new electric generating capacity that came online in the U.S. in 2015, at 41 percent of the market – more than solar energy or natural gas. Other countries have taken the same steps to increase wind energy in their local areas.
3. Eco-friendly
The goal of renewable energy is not only to reduce our dependency on finite traditional energy sources, but also to find cleaner ways to generate energy and reduce pollution that affects our planet and our daily lives. Coal- and natural gas-fired power plants pollute our air, are major contributors to global warming and consume vast amounts of water — harming our rivers and lakes and leaving less water for other uses. Wind energy has none of these problems. It produces no air pollution, makes no contribution to global warming and uses no water. AWEA was recently able to quantify the health benefits that have come as a result of the growing wind industry – according to the organization’s annual report, wind cuts huge amounts of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, harmful pollutants that cause smog and trigger health issues such as asthma attacks. In 2015 alone, this saved $7.3 billion on U.S. public health costs.
4. Low operational costs
It’s perfectly true that initial installation of wind power technologies requires high capital outlay, more so installing a commercial wind turbine. It all boils down to the number of turbines to be installed, the date the turbine purchase agreement was activated, cost of financing, location of the turbine installation project, construction contracts and much more. However, once these systems are up and running, the operational costs will significantly come down. Only routine maintenance will be required to ensure the turbines are operating seamlessly.