Wind Power Electricity - Is It Practical? Why Would You Want It?
Most of our planets power generation is heavily reliant on fossil fuels.
This type of generation is mainly from petroleum products such as oil and gas or another highly polluting, unrenewable, cheap and plentiful source - coal.
The type of energy sources is dependent on the different needs of the power companies and their consumers.
The decision on what to use as a energy source to generate the electricity is mainly based on cost and reliability of supply.
However these days the public expect more from their power generation companies and want clean renewable energy forcing the power companies to listen.
In New Zealand there is a race to build wind powered turbines to complement our water powered turbines.
That's where the alternative clean sources of electricity such as solar power, water power and wind power come in and it is wind power that we want to talk about today.
The basic operation of converting wind to electricity is very simple.
First you have the generator!.
A generator is the reverse of a electric motor.
You rotate the generator and it produces your electricity.
How - will it converts kinetic (motion) energy to electrical energy (the reverse of an electric motor - electrical to kinetic).
As an electric generator, it needs a separate device that can provide the kinetic energy in order to operate and produce electricity.
This device is actually any mechanical force that rotates a certain part of the generator.
In the beginning, people manually rotated the generator for power production.
This of course was very impractical but electricity was set to change the future and lives of everyone.
As electricity caught on and got developed, other sources of mechanical force to act as the prime mover of the generator.
The most common being a turbine rotated by high pressure steam generated from the burning of fossil fuels, The high pressure steam is forced through a turbine providing the kinetic energy for the generator.
The generation of wind power electricity is a good example of clean mostly reliable energy.
It is clean because there are no harmful gases or chemicals emitted during the process and no precious unrenewable resources consumed in the manufacture of electricity, it is mostly reliable because of course it is entirely dependent of constant wind.
Environmentalists push for implementation of more wind turbines to the power companies to provide them with electricity.
The only problem that has arisen is the placement of the turbines! Although they need to be close to the community they are going to serve, the public is becoming increasingly resistant to turbines being close to their homes.
This is understandable due to the noise and vibration emitted from very large turbines.
After negotiations with the affected parties a compromise is more often eventually reached.
Disadvantages aside just imagine a world with clean sources of energy: it would be wind powered smokeless, odourless and environmentally friendly an wouldn't be nuclear.
The other problem with wind power electricity is the placement of the turbines.
The more consistent the wind the more energy produced and the more financially viable the whole expensive set up is.
Unfortunately most common locations are coastal areas, beaches and hill tops where there is a sea breeze during the daytime and land breeze during the night time on beaches.
The wind on hill tops is consistent but can be a eyesore.
This brings in the problem of who wants big turbines on there beach or blocking their views? Compromises have to be reached.
But with enough wind power, electricity generation can vary between several kilowatts on a individual home to megawatts on a giant industrial turbine, enough to provide power from small to a medium sized community.
These days there are wind farms near cities that generate enough wind power electricity to supply the whole city and more! There are also homes and buildings with there own personnel wind turbines to generate there own wind power electricity with excess electricity being fed back into the power companies grid where they get a payment.
This assists in the initial cost and up keep of turbines.
With Global Warming increasing its impact on humanity, we really don't have a choice! We need to change the way we generate electricity globally now.
This type of generation is mainly from petroleum products such as oil and gas or another highly polluting, unrenewable, cheap and plentiful source - coal.
The type of energy sources is dependent on the different needs of the power companies and their consumers.
The decision on what to use as a energy source to generate the electricity is mainly based on cost and reliability of supply.
However these days the public expect more from their power generation companies and want clean renewable energy forcing the power companies to listen.
In New Zealand there is a race to build wind powered turbines to complement our water powered turbines.
That's where the alternative clean sources of electricity such as solar power, water power and wind power come in and it is wind power that we want to talk about today.
The basic operation of converting wind to electricity is very simple.
First you have the generator!.
A generator is the reverse of a electric motor.
You rotate the generator and it produces your electricity.
How - will it converts kinetic (motion) energy to electrical energy (the reverse of an electric motor - electrical to kinetic).
As an electric generator, it needs a separate device that can provide the kinetic energy in order to operate and produce electricity.
This device is actually any mechanical force that rotates a certain part of the generator.
In the beginning, people manually rotated the generator for power production.
This of course was very impractical but electricity was set to change the future and lives of everyone.
As electricity caught on and got developed, other sources of mechanical force to act as the prime mover of the generator.
The most common being a turbine rotated by high pressure steam generated from the burning of fossil fuels, The high pressure steam is forced through a turbine providing the kinetic energy for the generator.
The generation of wind power electricity is a good example of clean mostly reliable energy.
It is clean because there are no harmful gases or chemicals emitted during the process and no precious unrenewable resources consumed in the manufacture of electricity, it is mostly reliable because of course it is entirely dependent of constant wind.
Environmentalists push for implementation of more wind turbines to the power companies to provide them with electricity.
The only problem that has arisen is the placement of the turbines! Although they need to be close to the community they are going to serve, the public is becoming increasingly resistant to turbines being close to their homes.
This is understandable due to the noise and vibration emitted from very large turbines.
After negotiations with the affected parties a compromise is more often eventually reached.
Disadvantages aside just imagine a world with clean sources of energy: it would be wind powered smokeless, odourless and environmentally friendly an wouldn't be nuclear.
The other problem with wind power electricity is the placement of the turbines.
The more consistent the wind the more energy produced and the more financially viable the whole expensive set up is.
Unfortunately most common locations are coastal areas, beaches and hill tops where there is a sea breeze during the daytime and land breeze during the night time on beaches.
The wind on hill tops is consistent but can be a eyesore.
This brings in the problem of who wants big turbines on there beach or blocking their views? Compromises have to be reached.
But with enough wind power, electricity generation can vary between several kilowatts on a individual home to megawatts on a giant industrial turbine, enough to provide power from small to a medium sized community.
These days there are wind farms near cities that generate enough wind power electricity to supply the whole city and more! There are also homes and buildings with there own personnel wind turbines to generate there own wind power electricity with excess electricity being fed back into the power companies grid where they get a payment.
This assists in the initial cost and up keep of turbines.
With Global Warming increasing its impact on humanity, we really don't have a choice! We need to change the way we generate electricity globally now.