Human construction is inseparable from energy. Before the development of modern science and technology, we almost completely "relied on the sky for food" and did not know how to artificially transform various resources of nature. The development of science and technology has greatly improved our productivity, but at the same time, it also needs to pay a certain price, that is , the consumption of resources and the pollution of the environment .

The former gradually reduces our available resources , while the latter further accelerates changes in the human living environment . These two problems often occur side by side, and people have thought of a lot of solutions for this, but so far they have not been able to completely solve the negative effects of the two. While ensuring human life, it also protects the natural environment.

Among the numerous earth resources, non-renewable resources account for the majority of energy types . Such as the oil, coal, natural gas and so on that we extract in large quantities. Among them, the use of petroleum is very diverse. It can not only be used as a raw material for fuel oil, but also can produce various by-products, such as ethylene, which is used in the production of plastics. Coal and natural gas are mainly used directly as fuels, among which coal is also the main raw material for thermal power generation.

China is a big coal-producing country with numerous thermal power stations. In addition to consuming a large amount of coal resources, the waste gas generated by sub-thermal power stations will also bring huge pollution to the earth's atmosphere. Therefore, our country is also vigorously promoting the transformation of the energy industry .

Electricity and Clean Energy

Electricity is one of the most important and important energy sources in modern society. Our food, clothing, housing and transportation are inseparable from the help of electricity, and industrial production requires a lot of electricity. If a country wants to develop and become strong, it must ensure an adequate supply of electricity. Under this premise, we must also take into account the impact of power generation on the natural environment .

China has been developing clean energy since many years ago , that is, those energy sources that will not negatively affect the natural environment during use, such as solar energy, hydro energy, tidal energy, wind energy and so on. These sources of energy are almost ubiquitous on Earth and are not depleted by using them.

China has a vast territory, and although it has a large population, there are still a large number of areas with extremely low population density in the western and northern regions. These areas are rich in renewable resources, so China makes full use of the natural environment here to build clean energy power generation devices , such as large-scale solar power plants, hydroelectric power plants and so on.

At present, China's clean energy development has achieved initial results, such as the construction of the world's largest hydropower station, the Three Gorges Power Station , which will generate 111.8 billion kWh in 2020 alone , setting a new world record.

wind power

Among the many renewable energy sources, wind power is an important one. The earth has a thick atmosphere, which not only protects the earth's environment, but is also a necessary condition for nurturing life. Humans must have an atmosphere to breathe normally. The atmosphere is not static, but is in motion anytime and anywhere, so wind is generated.

Although strong winds can cause damage to human society, most of the time, the advantages of wind outweigh the disadvantages. For example, we can use wind power to build wind power plants . Similar to windmills, wind turbines use propellers to generate energy driven by the wind .

So how exactly does wind energy turn into electricity? In fact, after the wind drives the propeller to rotate, the wind energy is converted into mechanical energy , and then generates electricity through the gearbox, gearbox, and generator, which can maintain a stable power generation during the rotation.

Therefore, we can see large-scale wind power installations in some relatively open and windy places. Especially in western China, there are many areas suitable for building wind power stations . These places lack water resources and are not suitable for human habitation. The wind is strong enough to keep the power station running for a long time. Therefore, wind power can be promoted in these regions and become one of the main clean energy sources in China.

Wind power is also dangerous

Compared with other power generation methods, wind power generation seems to have the smallest impact on the environment, because only wind power generation devices need to be built, and there is no need to build water conservancy projects for a long time and at a high cost like hydropower generation. will have some impact.

However, this does not mean that wind power plants are beneficial and harmless. In fact, they also have harm to the environment that cannot be ignored. However, this harm is not caused by water flow and the atmosphere, but by the living creatures we often see in our daily life. They directly inflict damage. Simply put, wind power can harm passing birds .

To generate enough kinetic energy to run the generator, strong mechanical energy is required, so the blades of wind turbines are generally very large, and when they rotate at high speed, they are as dangerous as powerful weapons .

For humans, these fan blades are obviously safe, and most of the wind power plants are also set up in inaccessible areas, but for birds, these fan blades are almost no different from "torture tools", and they will be shot down even if they are not careful. was killed. Especially for birds that act in groups, even if the fan blades are found at the time, there is no way to avoid them in time , just like the birds that the plane hits when it is flying.

The number of birds killed by wind turbines each year is quite large compared to the rare bird strikes by planes . Take wind power generation in the United States as an example. Although wind power plants only account for less than 10 percent of the country's total power generation, they are killing as many as 300,000 birds of all kinds .

Obviously not just in the United States, wind power stations in other countries also have no way to prevent birds from dying under the blades. Especially when the light is not good enough, it is more difficult for birds to find the high-speed rotating fan blades, and the wind power station itself needs multiple wind turbines to run at the same time, and the flock of birds has nowhere to escape , and it will inevitably become a human creation. of the dead.

How to avoid accidents?

For any kind of bird, 300,000 is not a small number, and the damage caused by the fan blades is mostly large birds with smaller populations, and the impact is even greater.

Therefore, governments and researchers all over the world hope to find feasible methods to reduce the occurrence of similar accidents, so that people can use wind power generation more safely, and further reduce the impact of this clean energy on the natural environment. Afterwards, scientists came up with some possible ways to deal with the bird's problem.

One of the most feasible methods requires cooperation with biologists to predict and draw the migration map of child birds in advance during the migration season of each year, and remind them when the migrating flock is about to arrive at a wind power station . Turning off wind turbines when the flock arrives can minimize the number of birds that suffer, and it won't cause too much damage to people because the power station is out of work for too long.

However, this method does not work every time . Predicting the flight trajectories of birds is not only difficult, but also relatively expensive , so it is not suitable for every wind power station. Coupled with technical limitations, not all birds can escape the "attack" of wind turbines.

Should wind power continue to grow?

In addition to the impact on birds, wind power will also bring noise, electromagnetic radiation and other effects to the surrounding residents. Therefore, some people also suggested that since wind power generation does not account for the bulk of the total power generation, simply stop the development of the wind power generation industry, and naturally there will be no more harms, once and for all.

However, the development of wind power generation must have its own benefits in the beginning, so what are the specific benefits? One of the most obvious is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions , of which the most and the most influential is carbon dioxide, which is what we often call carbon emissions.

Whether it's cars, power generation or industry, every year a large amount of carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere, causing global warming . We are already in the general trend of increasing the overall environmental temperature of the earth, which is one of the stages of the cyclical change of the earth's climate in billions of years, but various human activities have undoubtedly exacerbated such changes.

For example, the huge amount of greenhouse gases emitted by human activities has caused glaciers that should have melted in a hundred years to melt in ten years. For life, it is like pressing the fast-forward button of death and having to Causing our vigilance.

Therefore, we cannot abandon wind power generation because of short-term harm . Humans really should find ways to improve the existing deficiencies of wind power generation , but it is by no means "one size fits all" and simply give up continuing to use wind power generation.

After all, unclean energy such as thermal power, although it will not kill other living things immediately, in the long run, it will cause far more harm than the blades of wind turbines. Originally, environmental protection requires a long-term perspective. It is obviously not cost-effective to give up the future energy industry and energy transformation efforts because of a little immediate loss.