Use of wind energy to generate electric energy allows for attaining a number of ecological, social and economic benefits.
The most important ecological benefits include:
- Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, including CO2 emissions, contributing to countermeasuring climate change,
- Improvement of air quality by avoiding atmospheric SO2, NOx and dust emissions,
- Lack of solid or gaseous waste, odour or sewage, lack of water or soil contamination, lack of land deterioration or losses to water circulation that do occur during generation of energy in conventional power plants and CHP’s,
- Wind is an inexhaustible and renewable energy source, its use allows for saving limited resources of fossil fuels,
- The technology is risk – free (for instance, there is no reactor – breakdown risk related to the use of nuclear power),
- Use of wind energy does not lower the level of groundwater, accompanying extraction of fossil fuels (coal),
- The technology does not require large areas in contrary to conventional technologies (areas occupied by mines, power plants, fuel transportation lines); from all known technologies its use causes the least effects on eco – systems.
The most important social and economic benefits include:
- Low operational costs of wind energy,
- Lack of fuel costs (no risk of fuel price fluctuations, allowing for eliminating its impact on the economy),
- Development of new sectors and generating revenues for the state, local self – governments and enterprises (including tax revenues),
- New workplaces,
- Contribution to economic growth,
- Impact on regional development and activation,
- Development of small and medium enterprises,
- Diversification of energy sources and decreased dependence from energy imports, in particular from fuel imports, contributing to increase in energy security,
- Protection from excessive increase in price of energy generated by conventional sources,
- Development of transmission infrastructure,
- Decrease in transmission costs and losses by placing the producer closed to the consumer,
- Wind turbines occupy little place and may coexist with other forms of activity, such as agriculture or horticulture,
- Contribution to sustainable development