Wind power
Wind power is a possible option for renewable energy.
Wind turbines convert wind to electricity.
A lot of people incorrectly call wind turbines "windmills". But in fact windmills are a much older technology, which use the wind to mill grains mechanically (no electricity involved).
Intermittency
Wind power is even more intermittent than solar. There can be weeks where the wind blows strong
Having multiple wind farms might somewhat reduce the intermittency. But in practice, this doesn't seem to help much.[1]
Energy storage
Scaling up energy storage is already a challenge, even for solar which only needs about a day's worth of energy storage in general. Wind might need several weeks worth.
Maybe wind power could be stored via hydrogen, which doesn't have a fixed capacity the way batteries do.
Suitable wind speeds
Most wind turbines can only generate power when wind speeds are between 3.5 m/s and 25 m/s.
[2]
References
- ↑ David JC McKay, Sustainable energy - without the hot air [Online], Available: http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/withouthotair/c26/page_187.shtml
- ↑ DASH, Meteorologically Defined Limits to Reduction in the Variability of Outputs from a Coupled Wind Farm System in the Central US [Online], Available: http://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/10981611/Meteorologically%20defined%20limits%20to%20reduction%20in%20the%20variability%20of%20outputs%20from%20a%20coupled%20wind%20farm%20system%20in%20the%20Central%20US_1.pdf?sequence=6