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Tuesday 25 October 2011

Wind Power

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Wind power is actually a form of solar power, because wind is caused by heat from the sun. When air moves, causing wind, it has kinetic energy—the energy created whenever mass is in motion. With the right technology, the wind’s kinetic energy can be captured and converted to other forms of energy such as electricity or mechanical power. 

Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form of energy, such as using wind turbines to make electricity, windmills for mechanical power, windpumps for water pumping or drainage, or sails to propel ships. The total amount of economically extractable power available from the wind is considerably more than present human power use from all sources.  Wind power, as an alternative to fossil fuels, is plentiful, renewable, widely distributed, clean, and produces no greenhouse gas emissions during operation.
Wind turbines convert the energy of moving air or wind into electricity. Most modern wind turbines consist of three blades, connected to a tall tower via a hub. When wind blows past the blades they rotate, spinning a shaft which connects to a generator and makes electricity.

Wind turbines are built in different sizes. Some wind turbines can only produce enough energy for one household, others can power over 1000 homes throughout the year. Their capacity to produce electricity depends on their size and the weather conditions where they are installed.
It was reported in the year 2005 that the world's wind power capacity was about 60000 megawatts, constituting about 1% of the world's present electric power usage. Although not much of this type of energy is used in the U.S, countries like Denmark and Spain make use of this technology to contribute, in quite respectful doses, to their electrical energy needs.

Modern electric power is generated by converting the rotary motion of the turbines, caused by the wind, into electrical energy by the means of a electric generator. Wind power is used to provide electricity ranging from large wind gardens to stand-alone mills to provide energy for isolated places.

It also has to be noted that wind energy is renewable, abundant, mitigates the greenhouse effect, contributes nothing to the air pollution and is reasonable easy to produce. The cost of producing wind power has tumbled down considerably over the time. It is worth mentioning the fact the amount of wind power being produced in the U.S alone has seen growth rates of about 15 to 20%.

About 1 to 4% of solar power is changed into wind energy, while most of it is again absorbed by the flora for photosynthesis; the rest of it keeps rushing about at high and low-altitudes with varying velocities and intensities. The power of the wind is caught by letting it flow past the turbine blades which in turn induce a torque in the motor attached. The amount of power generated is proportional to the density of air, the area swept by the rotor and the cube of the speed of the wind.

Higher velocities of wind cause more power to be generated, however, all locations no not all always have winds blowing at the same speeds or velocities. It has been noticed that the power is averaged out and most windpanels capture power in short wind bursts.

Wind power is quite a popular way to to reduce the cost of energy and most customers in the U.S can decide to go for some utility power companies and subscribe to power from these forms of new alternative sources of energy mostly wind energy.
Click here to access a manual with step by step instructions, even for a new user, to build a home made solar powered electricity.

1 comment:

  1. I am looking into putting a solar panel on my house, but I always get mixed up with which way the sun rises and sets in Massachusetts. What side of the house should the solar panel is put on?

    solar panels massachusetts

    ReplyDelete