Editing Wind power (section)

{{Short description|Electrical power generation from wind}}
{{redirect|Wind energy|the academic journal|Wind Energy (journal)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}}
[[File: Wind power plants in Xinjiang, China.jpg|thumb|upright=1.6|Wind farm in [[Xinjiang]], China]]
[[File:Electricity production by source.svg|thumb|World electricity production by source, 2000-2024]]
{{sustainable energy}}

'''Wind power''' is the use of [[wind]] energy to generate useful work. Historically, wind power was used by [[sails]], [[windmill]]s and [[windpump]]s, but today it is mostly used to generate [[electricity]]. This article deals only with wind power for electricity generation.
Today, wind power is generated almost completely using [[wind turbine]]s, generally grouped into [[wind farms]] and connected to the [[electrical grid]].

In 2024, wind supplied over 2,494 [[TWh]] of electricity, which was 8.1% of world electricity.<ref name=ember2024/>
With about 100 [[Gigawatt|GW]] added during 2021, mostly [[Wind power in China|in China]] and the [[Wind power in the United States|United States]], global installed wind power capacity exceeded 800 GW.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|title=Wind Power – Analysis|url=https://www.iea.org/reports/wind-power|access-date=2021-11-23|website=IEA|language=en-GB|archive-date=23 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211123010357/https://www.iea.org/reports/wind-power|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=Wind energy generation vs. installed capacity|url=https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/wind-energy-consumption-vs-installed-wind-energy-capacity|access-date=2021-11-23|website=Our World in Data|archive-date=19 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211019062311/https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/wind-energy-consumption-vs-installed-wind-energy-capacity|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-03-25 |title=Global wind industry breezes into new record |url=https://www.energylivenews.com/2022/03/25/global-wind-industry-breezes-into-new-record/ |access-date=2022-04-02 |website=Energy Live News |language=en-US}}</ref> 30 countries generated more than a tenth of their electricity from wind power in 2024 and wind generation has nearly tripled since 2015.<ref name=ember2024>{{Cite web |date=2024-05-07 |title=Global Electricity Review 2025 |url=https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/global-electricity-review-2025/ |access-date=2025-04-13 |website=Ember |language=en-US}}</ref> To help meet the [[Paris Agreement]] goals to [[Climate change mitigation|limit climate change]], analysts say it should expand much faster – by over 1% of electricity generation per year.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|title=Expansion of wind and solar power too slow to stop climate change|url=https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/10/211014141949.htm|access-date=2021-11-24|website=ScienceDaily|language=en}}</ref>

Wind power is considered a [[sustainable energy|sustainable]], [[renewable energy]] source, and has a much smaller [[Environmental impact of wind power|impact on the environment]] compared to burning [[fossil fuel]]s. Wind power is [[variable renewable energy|variable]], so it needs [[energy storage]] or other [[dispatchable generation]] energy sources to attain a reliable supply of electricity. Land-based (onshore) wind farms have a greater visual impact on the landscape than most other power stations per energy produced.<ref name="grantham">{{cite web|url=http://www.lse.ac.uk/GranthamInstitute/faqs/what-are-the-pros-and-cons-of-onshore-wind-energy|title=What are the pros and cons of onshore wind energy?|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190622123816/http://www.lse.ac.uk/GranthamInstitute/faqs/what-are-the-pros-and-cons-of-onshore-wind-energy/ |date=2018-01-12|archive-date=22 June 2019|work=Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, London School of Economics and Political Science|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="energyfootprint">{{cite journal|first1=Nathan F.|last1=Jones|first2=Liba|last2=Pejchar|first3=Joseph M.|last3=Kiesecker|doi=10.1093/biosci/biu224|title=The Energy Footprint: How Oil, Natural Gas, and Wind Energy Affect Land for Biodiversity and the Flow of Ecosystem Services|journal=[[BioScience]]|volume=65|issue=3|date=2015-01-22|access-date=2022-11-09|pages=290–301|url=https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/65/3/290/236920|doi-access=free|issn=0006-3568}}</ref> [[Offshore wind farm|Wind farms sited offshore]] have less visual impact and have higher [[capacity factor]]s, although they are generally more expensive.<ref name=":1" /> Offshore wind power currently has a share of about 10% of new installations.<ref>{{cite web |date=19 March 2020 |title=Global Wind Report 2019 |url=https://gwec.net/global-wind-report-2019/ |access-date=28 March 2020 |publisher=Global Wind Energy Council}}</ref>

Wind power is one of the lowest-cost electricity sources per unit of energy produced. 
In many locations, new [[onshore wind farm]]s are cheaper than new [[Coal-fired power station|coal]] or [[Gas-fired power plant|gas plants]].<ref name=":6" />

Regions in the higher northern and southern latitudes have the highest potential for wind power.<ref>{{cite web |title=Global Wind Atlas |url=http://science.globalwindatlas.info/datasets.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200224101415/http://science.globalwindatlas.info/datasets.html |archive-date=24 February 2020 |access-date=28 March 2020 |publisher=DTU Technical University of Denmark}}</ref> In most regions, wind power generation is higher in nighttime, and in winter when [[solar power]] output is low. For this reason, combinations of wind and solar power are suitable in many countries.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Nyenah |first1=Emmanuel |last2=Sterl |first2=Sebastian |last3=Thiery |first3=Wim |date=2022-05-01 |title=Pieces of a puzzle: solar-wind power synergies on seasonal and diurnal timescales tend to be excellent worldwide |journal=Environmental Research Communications |volume=4 |issue=5 |pages=055011 |doi=10.1088/2515-7620/ac71fb |bibcode=2022ERCom...4e5011N |s2cid=249227821 |issn=2515-7620|doi-access=free }}</ref>