Converting Wind into Energy
Wind is created from the earth's warm air rising and creating a vacuum that causes cooler air to replace it. This flow is constantly disturbed by the rotation of the earth and local atmospheric conditions. This rotating cycle results in what we call wind. When harnessed, using sails, mills, and modern wind turbines, wind can serve us a powerful and renewable energy source that may soon become very important to our modern lifestyles.
Wind can be converted into mechanical energy which people have done for centuries using the windmill. Through this they were able to perform tasks such as cutting wood, grinding grain for flour, and directing water flow to their benefit. Now with our advancing technologies we are able to create electrical power using wind and turbines. The turbines convert wind energy into electric energy by using a windmill like structure attached to an electric generator.
Wind is a clean and renewable source of energy. Because of this modern wind turbines are being installed all over the globe in hopes of lessening the need of non-renewable energy such as the burning of fossil fuels.
The modern wind turbine first started to be used around the 1930's in the United States. Interest in powering electric lighting and appliances on farms in the US led to the use of small battery charged wind turbines. The trend caught quickly and soon this new way of running things was common in homes and small businesses across the country. Today Wind turbines can generate 250 to 300 kilowatts of power, nearly 10 times the amount they could in the beginning in Europe.
The systems of the modern wind turbine consist of three components, a tower, a rotor, and a nacelle. The tower is where the wind turbine is mounted. The rotor is the component turned by the wind itself. The nacelle is the place that houses all of the equipment including, the generator, which converts the mechanical energy in the active rotor into electricity. All of these parts must be kept in top shape and be made of extremely strong materials.
The efficiency of these structures is highly dependent on the location they are set. A site with high average wind speeds will be a much better place than one that doesn't because it will be able to produce more wind energy.
You’ll almost always find these wind turbines in open fields and they are usually called wind farms. Because these wind turbines create so much turbulence they have to be so far apart from each other and they can’t be right behind each other (Gipe). These wind turbines have to be 200-300 feet in the air because the blades on these wind turbines are 65-130 feet long (Gipe). Also these wind turbines have to have a 17 miles per hour wind to start spinning, because a wind smaller than that won’t create enough energy
Its most known process of generating electricity would be movement of air through wind turbines. Wind power has two parts, mechanical and electrical systems. Mechanical systems are low speed and are used for mechanical tasks such as pumping water or grinding grain. Electrical systems are high speed and are used to generate electricity to power homes or schools. Many people feel that wind farms full of turbines, are aesthetically unpleasing, but wind power is a clean energy source and does not generate greenhouse gas emissions. It is a very abundant resource throughout the United States. Wind power is simple, relatively cheap, and low maintenance (Sambu). Wind power is again, free and very abundant so no matter how much we use now, we will still obtain enough in the
The proposed wind farm will be built in an area known as Horseshoe Shoal, located five miles off the south shore of Cape Cod, in Nantucket Sound. Cape Wind Associates is the organization planning to build the wind farm. The farm will be visible in all areas that face the sound on Cape Cod, Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard. The wind farm will consist of 130 wind turbines, each turbine measuring 420 feet in height, each turbine about a quarter of a mile apart, covering a 24-square mile area. If built, it will be the largest wind farm in the world.
There is physics involved in these wind turbines as they change wind into mechanical energy and then into electricity. The energy produced depends on the volume of the air, the density, and the wind speed. The mass per unit time is the mass times the density times the wind speed or m = mass, p = density, A = area, and v = wind speed; m = pAV. Because the function of the wind turbine is to transform the wind’s kinetic energy into electricity the equation for kinetic energy is needed; KE = ½ mv2 or kinetic energy equals one half the mass times the velocity squared. Then, using substitution, the power in the wind depends on the density of the air, area swept out by rotors, and the cube of the velocity or ½ pAV3. Using Betz’ law the theoretical energy model for extracting 59% of the energy is power = 16/27(½ pAV3) .
For example, gutter guards that are installed at an angle equal to that of the roof line will prove significantly more efficient than those that are
Wind turbines can be very useful in bringing energy into your home. They are especially useful when solar panels aren't working. They take the wind speed from oceans, lakes, dugouts, or rivers and turn it into energy. To use the wind turbines most efficiently you should set up a wind power system.
Just as long as wind continues to blow and the sun shines, then wind power can produce energy to send to many different areas. There aren’t many locations that have continuous wind. And because of that, the widespread development of wind power isn’t as great as it could be. Although there are more advantages than disadvantages when it comes to this energy source, the disadvantages should be taken just as seriously. Wind power can harm animals, there was a study that stated birds were coming in contact with turbines and dying.
The average wind on the entire site is approximately 9m/s. Wind speeds of 7.5m/s are deemed economically viable. The wind speed can vary dramatically onsite. The wind speed was very low at 3m/s when we were there and we were told on our site visit that there have being wind speeds up to 50m/s experienced on the site. To prevent any damage the turbines cut out at a certain wind speed. This is typically 25m/s for the turbines on site.
In everyday life, there are things that one needs to survive. And sustainability problems arise every day. One such problem is energy loss. The world is using up a lot of energy and new ideas need to be formed to help the rest of the world and the future of the generations that are to follow, to survive. With that the problem is that people use up energy and they do not use it efficiently. Therefore scientists are needed to find ways to deal with the sustainability problem that is arising. That is where wind turbines are used to generate this energy but the actual wind-turbines are very large, loud and they kill birds, thus new designs need to be found in order to help energy usage and to bring the size and structure of the wind turbines to a smaller scale to prevent injuries to nature and the species around it.
The first process in designing the wind turbine involve the calculation of the various loads expected to act on the blade surface during operating wind conditions which in turn are used to calculate the stresses and deflections. These stresses and deflections are later compared with the design stresses and deflections of the material from which the component is to be made.
Winds are caused by the irregular heating of the atmosphere by the sun, the variations of the earth's surface, and rotation of the earth. This wind flow, or kinetic energy, when "harvested" by modern wind turbines, can be used to generate electricity. There is an abundance of wind to meet our needs, “the potential of [the total] wind power [in the world] is. 20 times more than what the entire human population needs” (Maehlum). Currently, wind power is one of the lowest-priced renewable energy technologies available, costing between four and six cents per kilowatt-hour, depending upon the wind resource.
Each one of us has their own opinion about what wind turbines do and not what they are actually meant for. Wind turbines are meant to be an energy saving method that can be used ...
Wind power is one of the most sustainable ways of generating electricity as no toxic emissions are produced; it does not add to global warming and is one of the most available sources of renewable energy and theoretically it is an infinite source of energy. On sufficiently windy areas, wind turbines are one of the most economical methods of generating electricity, which makes it appealing to many individuals, governments and organizations. Due to this it is the fastest growing source of electricity in the world (Union of Concerned Scientists, 2014) with a 10% increase in yearly additions installed in 2012 compared with 2011 (Global Wind Energy Council, 2012). However the proportion of energy that can be harnessed through wind power is restricted by the cost of the infrastructure needed, construction, the amount of wind that occurs and that there are only a narrow number of sites within the UK that are windy enough for the wind turbines to be worth installing.
...he better and enable their children to live in a cleaner environment. Building wind turbines in some areas might not be as beneficial. But it will benefit certain areas more than others because there are more winds flowing in a certain area. Places where there are more land will be perfect to build these wind turbines because it will generate huge amounts of electricity that can power many buildings. The area of location should be chosen with utmost care where there is an abundance of wind that in consistent. Since wind energy is a renewable technology that does not contribute to global warming, thus it will make a better and healthier
...rbines in Port Elizabeth are used to create kinetic and the turbines are strong enough to power a small town. The Coelga Wind Farm was the first wind farm built in South Africa which was built in the Eastern Cape; due to the success of the wind farm many more were built. The problem with wind turbines is they can't be used in a place such as Gauteng, because the wind is minimal and the wind turbines can't be turned and no power can be produced.