|
|
|
Environmental Issues--Ideas--Conservation
and more---->THINK GREEN |
|
Share on Facebook |
| Products of
Interest: |
 |
| |
| Healthy
Home
Articles:
Overall Healthy Home,
Eco Friendly Flooring,
Eco
Friendly Paint and Stains, Greener Paths for Plastic, Beyond Lead:
Toxins in Toys, Healthy Bathroom, Healthy Bedroom, Are your Candles
Toxic, Healthy Kitchen, Healthy Home Exterior, Ten simple ways to clean
green, The Allergen-Free Bedroom, Facts about water filters, Green hands
on Deck, The ugly side of Cosmetics
DIY Energy
Articles:
Bio fuels, How electricity is produced, Living off the grid, Reducing
your electricity bill, Renewable energy solutions, Save power at home,
Solar power solutions at home, The future of electricity, The worlds
energy crisis, Wind power solutions at home.
|
|
10% of your purchase from this
web-site will be donated to Green America
 |
|
|
 A
Philosophical perspective of Humans and the Earth. Try it, join us
with your comments at
http://blog.theearthslife.com
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
| |
| |
Wind Power
| |
|
| Wind is the movement of air from
an area of high pressure to an area of low pressure. In fact, wind
exists because the sun unevenly heats the surface of the Earth. As hot
air rises, cooler air moves in to fill the void. As long as the sun
shines, the wind will blow. And as long as the wind blows, people will
harness it to power their lives.
Ancient mariners used sails to capture the wind and
explore the world. Farmers once used windmills to grind their grains and
pump water. Today, more and more people are using wind turbines to wring
electricity from the breeze. Over the past decade, wind turbine use has
increased at more than 25 percent a year. Still, it only provides a
small fraction of the world's energy.
Most wind energy comes from turbines that can be as
tall as a 20-story building and have three 200-foot-long (60-meter-long)
blades. These contraptions look like giant airplane propellers on a
stick. The wind spins the blades, which turn a shaft connected to a
generator that produces electricity. Other turbines work the same way,
but the turbine is on a vertical axis and the blades look like a giant
egg beater.
The biggest wind turbines generate enough electricity
to supply about 600 U.S. homes. Wind farms have tens and sometimes
hundreds of these turbines lined up together in particularly windy
spots, like along a ridge. Smaller turbines erected in a backyard
can produce enough electricity for a single home or small business.
Wind is a clean source of renewable energy that
produces no air or water pollution. And since the wind is free,
operational costs are nearly zero once a turbine is erected. Mass
production and technology advances are making turbines cheaper, and
many governments offer tax incentives to spur wind-energy
development.
Some people think wind turbines are ugly and
complain about the noise the machines make. The slowly rotating
blades can also kill birds and bats, but not nearly as many as cars,
power lines, and high-rise buildings do. The wind is also variable:
If it's not blowing, there's no electricity generated.
Nevertheless, the wind energy industry is booming.
Globally, generation more than quadrupled between 2000 and 2006. At
the end of last year, global capacity was more than 70,000
megawatts. In the energy-hungry United States, a single megawatt is
enough electricity to power about 250 homes. Germany has the most
installed wind energy capacity, followed by Spain, the United
States, India, and Denmark. Development is also fast growing in
France and China.
Industry experts predict that if this pace of
growth continues, by 2050 the answer to one third of the world's
electricity needs will be found blowing in the wind.
Wind Power Interactive
A National Geographic Presentation |
Engineer your own turbine to harness the power of the
breeze, and find out for yourself whether or not the answer to our clean
energy problem is blowin' in the wind.
|
|
| Wind Energy
Harnessing the Air in Motion
|
|
| Wind
Turbines capture the energy of moving air and convert it to electricity.
Explore a working Turbine and create your own wind farm to produce
maximum power.
HOW IT WORKS |
|
| Inside a Wind
Turbine |
|
|
Producing electric power with wind is a
simple process. Most turbines have three large blades that are
aerodymanically designed to turn as easily as possible when the wind
blows on them. These turning blades spin a shaft, which connects
to a generator that produces electricity. |
|
|
Blades |
|
| As the
wind blows over the turbine's blades they create "lift," much like an
airplane's wing, and begin to turn. |
|
|
Low-Speed Shaft
|
|
| The
spinning rotor blades turn this shaft some 30 to 60 times every minute. |
|
|
Gear Box |
|
| The
gears in this box connect the low-speed shaft with a high-speed shaft
that droves the generator. The gears also boost the rotation speed
of the high-speed shaft to 1000 to 1800 rotations per minute. |
|
|
High-Speed Shaft
|
|
| The
rapidly spinning shaft drives the generator to produce electric power. |
|
|
Generator |
|
| The
benerator's electrical output is connected to the larger electrical
grid. |
|
| Generating
Power |
|
| Four
main variables determine how much electricity a turbine can produce.
See how below. |
|
| Wind
Velocity |
|
| Wind
Speeds are not constant and stronger winds produce more energy--but only
up to a point. Turbines usually don't operate at all if wind
speeds are below about 8 miles per hour. Between about 25 and 55
mph a wind turbine generates electricity at it's peak power. Most
turbines shut down at about 55 miles per hour because they can be
damaged by higher winds. |
|
| Blade
Radius |
|
| The
vertical disk created by the rotating blades (or "swept area") is one of
the factors that determines how much electricity the turbine can
produce. Like in a farmer's field, the larger the area of wind the
blades "harvest" the greater their yield will be. Doubling the
blade, or rotor, diameter can result in four times more power. |
|
| Tower
Height |
|
|
Turbines come in a variety of sizes but larger ones are usually more
efficient. Tall turbines are able to reach the greater winds found
at altitude and are less subject to turbulence. |
|
| Air
Density |
|
| The
amount of kinetic energy the wind applies to a rotor is affected by air
density. "Heavier" air exerts more lift on a rotor. Air
density is often a function of altitude. High-altitude locations
have lower air pressure and "lighter air" so they are less productive
turbine locations. The dense, "heavy" air near sea level drives
rotors relatively more effectively. |
|
| Here are the
numbers |
|
| TOWER
HEIGHT: 240FT |
|
| BLADE
RADIUS: 103FT |
|
| PRIME
SPEED: 25 MPH |
|
| POWER
PRODUCED: 1,579 KW |
|
| HOMES
SUPPLIED: 521 |
|
| These
numbers will vary of course if blade radius is shorter or longer and/or
wind speed is lower. |
|
|
For an interactive presentation--you can try it out to see the
results immediately with different variables go to the National
Geographic page for Wind Power at
Wind Power Interactive
|
|
| |
|
Cindy Adams
PO Box 189, Grand Ronde, OR 97347
CONTACT US
