We are all becoming very familiar with the site of wind turbines scattered across the countryside and the debate about the pros and cons of wind energy continues to divide people with various views about climate change and the use of fossil fuels.

We all use more and more energy and it isn't just us. All over the world nations are developing and wanting to use more and more energy. As this demand for energy supplies grows we can expect to see the cost of energy rise and in 2008 we saw the effects of demand for energy on the price of gas. The recession has slowed demand but when the economy picks up we can expect to see the cost of energy rise once again.

Our great dependence on oil has made us vulnerable to world demand and problems with supply. One of the great benefits of renewable energy is that we can become energy independent and this saves us all money and reduces our balance of payments deficit.

Wind turbine generators offer us a real alternative energy supply that is cheap once the costs of installation have been recovered and can continue to operate for many years with low maintenance and no ongoing cost of fuel to generate energy.

It is expensive to build a wind turbine but the expense is almost all upfront on the installation costs. Once a wind turbine is installed it requires little in the way of maintenance and servicing and can continue to generate electricity at low cost for many years.

Unlike other more traditional ways of generating electricity wind turbine generators require no regular supplies of fuel to keep the generator spinning and producing electricity. The energy needed comes from the wind at no cost and over the long term this makes wind energy a very effective way of generating low cost electricity.

The issue of energy supply is not something you can sensibly look at in the short term. We need to plan for the future and look at long terms needs and costs of generating electricity. We don't yet know the lifetime of wind turbines but it is likely that they will still be operating in perhaps fifty years time, long after all their installation costs have been recovered.

Wind turbines may need their generators repaired and replaced but the towers they are installed on should remain usable for many years so over the long term wind energy could provide very cheap energy just so long as the wind blows.

There is one big problem with getting energy from wind power generators and that is what happens when the wind stops blowing. What to do when the wind stops blowing is the strongest argument used by those who oppose the use of wind energy and it is a problem that needs a solution.

When wind energy is part of a larger energy supply it is not such a great problem because other generating plant can take up the slack but for wind energy to successfully replace coal and gas power stations there needs to be more reliable and consistent supplies so that the lights don't go out when the wind stops blowing.

When you live in a large country the wind is always blowing somewhere and with a robust energy grid power can be diverted from areas where there is plenty of wind turbine generated electricity to areas where there is no wind but we do need to find better ways of using and storing the energy when it is available and this could be through alternative energy storage systems and the use of smart energy usage and perhaps some changes in how we use our energy supply.

Using the smart energy technology we have available today our electrical appliances and equipment could make better use of electricity when it is plentiful and when it is in short supply. If wind energy were cheap when the wind is producing lots of energy and more expensive when there was less wind and less energy we could have our electrical equipment shut down or run at reduced energy levels when energy is too expensive and run automatically when it is cheap. This could save us all money by using electricity more efficiently and everyone would benefit.