Wind power

Wind is a clean and renewable energy source that can produce enough electricity to power millions of homes and businesses. Wind is the movement of air created by the uneven heating of the surface of the earth by the sun. Today, wind energy is primarily used for the production of electricity.

How do we turn the wind into electricity? The simplest way to think about this is to imagine that a wind turbine works in exactly the opposite way to a fan. Instead of using electricity to make wind, like a fan, turbines use the wind to make electricity.

The generator is a machine that produces electrical energy from mechanical energy.

Types of Wind Turbines

Today's wind turbines fall into two main category based on the direction of the rotating shaft. The most common type of wind turbines used today are the horizontal-axis wind turbines. Horizontal-axis wind turbines have turbine blades that look like airplane propellers, while vertical–axis wind turbines have blades that go from top to bottom. A small percentage of wind turbines used today are vertical-axis wind turbines.

Size and capacity of Wind Turbines

The size of wind turbine differs widely. Small turbines are used to provide power to a single home or business and the capacity of these small wind turbines are less than 100 kilowatts. Larger commercial sized wind turbines can have a capacity of 5 megawatts. These larger turbines are frequently grouped together into wind farms providing power to the electricity grid. Wind farm normally has dozens of wind turbines that are scattered over a large area.

History of wind energy

To Charles F. Brush (1849-1929), one of the founders of the american electric industry, we owe the first electricity generating wind turbine. It was a giant of 144 blades made out of cedarwood. It functioned for 20 years and charged the batteries in the basement of his mansion. During WWII, a danish company began manufacturing bi and tri-blade aerogenerators and, in the 50´s, the first alternating current turbines were developed. The first oil crisis (1973) generated a real interest in eolic energy.

The generation of wind turbines of 55 kW of 1980, represented the technological and industrial boom for the modern aerogenerators.

Future

We can emphasize that wind energy is generated indirectly thanks to the Sun. The Sun heats the air and this causes the currents that generate wind. Wind is inexhaustible, and is renewed on a continuous basis. It does not cause any type of contamination. It is green power.

It is becoming increasingly less expensive, as the technology advances.

It allows progress without hurting the Earth, respecting the environment.

The facilities are easily reversible. It leaves no trace.

To ensure wind turbines that are big in size work in a better manner, a new kind of air-flow technology may soon be introduced. Apart from other aspects, it will focus on efficiency of blades used in the wind turbines. The technology will help in increasing the efficiency of these turbines under various wind conditions.

Other applications of wind energy

Another one of wind energy´s uses is the windmill. An aerogenerator is connected directly to a charge replacing its electric generator and its main function is water pumping.