What is Wind Power?
This Article will cover how wind is created, how wind power is created, the history of wind power use and the advantages and disadvantages of using wind power.
How the Wind is Created
The Earth is unevenly heated by the sun; the poles receive less heat from the sun than the equator does. And, dry land heats up (and cools down) faster than the oceans do.
This differential heating drives a global atmospheric convection system that reaches from the Earth's surface to the stratosphere. Most of the energy stored in the wind cycle can be found at high altitudes where constant wind speeds of over 99 mph occur.
When air moves, i.e. wind, it has kinetic energy — which is 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. That’s how wind power is created.
How Wind Power is Created & Wind Power History
Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useable form of energy. Example are: using wind
turbines to make electricity, wind mills for mechanical power, wind pumps for pumping water or
draining water, or sails to propel ships.
Wind power has been used by humans for at least 5,500 years to propel boats and ships. Windmills have been used for pumping water and for grinding grain since the 7th century AD in the area that is now Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan.
In 2009, wind energy production was 340 TWh (terra watt hour, or one billion kilowatt hours*),
which is about 2% of worldwide electricity usage. Wind energy production is increasing every year.
Several countries have achieved relatively high levels of wind power creation, although with large
governmental subsidies, such as 20% of stationary electricity production in Denmark, 14% in
Ireland and Portugal, 11% in Spain, and 8% in Germany in 2009. As of May 2009, 80 countries around
the world are using wind power on a commercial basis.
Wind power is non-dispatchable, meaning that for economic operation, all of the available output
must be used when it is available. Other resources, such as hydropower, load management techniques
must be used to match supply with demand.
The intermittency of wind seldom creates problems when using wind power to supply a low proportion of total demand (such as personal use), but as the proportion increases, problems are created such as higher costs, the need to upgrade the power grid, and a decreased ability to replace traditional production. Power management techniques such as exporting excess power to neighboring areas or reducing demand when wind production is low, can mitigate these problems.
The total amount of economically extractable power available from the wind is considerably more
than current human power use from all other sources. An estimated 72 TW of wind power on the Earth could be commercially viable**, compared to about 15 TW average global power consumption from all sources in 2008. It is important to note that not all the energy from wind flowing past a given
point can be captured and used.
Wind Power is Clean and Renewable
Wind power should be considered an important element of any long-term energy strategy, because
wind power generation uses a natural and virtually inexhaustible source of energy — the wind — to
create electricity. Which is in stark contrast to conventional power plants that rely on fossil fuels.
And wind power generation is clean; it doesn’t cause air, soil or water pollution. And, that's the
important difference between wind power and other renewable energy sources, such as nuclear power, which produces a vast amount of dangerous toxic waste, or the burning of bio-fuels that create CO2.
Disadvantages of Wind Power
Besides the pollution generated when the materials to build wind turbines are produced and
transported, there are a few other issues regarding the production of wind power for energy.
Wind turbines are noisy. Each turbine (and there are many on a wind farm) can generate the same
level of noise as a car travelling at 70 mph.
Large wind farms (the areas of land covered with wind turbines) are needed to provide entire
communities with enough electricity. Which creates an obstacle to increasing worldwide use of wind
power since the wind farms must be located on large tracts of land or along coastlines to capture
the greatest wind movement.
Building a wind farm in those areas sometimes conflicts with other uses, such as nature, agriculture, urban development, or waterfront views.
And, the wind is not reliable! Sometimes there just isn't enough wind to produce electricity on a
large scale.
Conclusion
The above issues can be partially resovled by installing your own home wind power generation system. It is easier to do and less expensive than you think - get the facts at "Wind Power for You."
With all things consider, wind power is a viable option to our energy needs and is worth investing in. Wind power reduces pollution, is sustainable and has limitless potential.
To read more about wind power and how you can make your own, go to "Wind Power Blows."
Using renewable energy is one more way to Go Green Without Suffering!
resources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power
http://environment.about.com/od/renewableenergy/a/wind_power.htm
*For more information on energy measurement visit: This link will link you to these three articles:
1)The kilowatt hour, or kilowatt-hour, (symbol kW·h, kW h) is a unit of energy equal to 1000 watt
hours or 3.6 megajoules.Taylor, Barry N. (1995). (Special publication 811). Gaithersburg, MD:
National Institute of Standards and Technology. 31. ...en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TWh
2)One Terra Watt hour is one billion kWh, also the approximate annual amount of electricity consumed
by 45,000 households www.statkraft.com/presscentre/glossary-of-statkraft-terms/
3)terawatt-hour, equal to a million megawatts or a billion kilowatts.
www.feasta.org/documents/wells/glossary.html
**Willett Kempton. "Mapping the global wind power resource". Ocean.udel.edu. Retrieved 2010-08-29.
http://www.technologystudent.com/energy1/wind8.htm
How the Wind is Created
The Earth is unevenly heated by the sun; the poles receive less heat from the sun than the equator does. And, dry land heats up (and cools down) faster than the oceans do.
This differential heating drives a global atmospheric convection system that reaches from the Earth's surface to the stratosphere. Most of the energy stored in the wind cycle can be found at high altitudes where constant wind speeds of over 99 mph occur.
When air moves, i.e. wind, it has kinetic energy — which is 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. That’s how wind power is created.
How Wind Power is Created & Wind Power History
Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useable form of energy. Example are: using wind
turbines to make electricity, wind mills for mechanical power, wind pumps for pumping water or
draining water, or sails to propel ships.
Wind power has been used by humans for at least 5,500 years to propel boats and ships. Windmills have been used for pumping water and for grinding grain since the 7th century AD in the area that is now Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan.
In 2009, wind energy production was 340 TWh (terra watt hour, or one billion kilowatt hours*),
which is about 2% of worldwide electricity usage. Wind energy production is increasing every year.
Several countries have achieved relatively high levels of wind power creation, although with large
governmental subsidies, such as 20% of stationary electricity production in Denmark, 14% in
Ireland and Portugal, 11% in Spain, and 8% in Germany in 2009. As of May 2009, 80 countries around
the world are using wind power on a commercial basis.
Wind power is non-dispatchable, meaning that for economic operation, all of the available output
must be used when it is available. Other resources, such as hydropower, load management techniques
must be used to match supply with demand.
The intermittency of wind seldom creates problems when using wind power to supply a low proportion of total demand (such as personal use), but as the proportion increases, problems are created such as higher costs, the need to upgrade the power grid, and a decreased ability to replace traditional production. Power management techniques such as exporting excess power to neighboring areas or reducing demand when wind production is low, can mitigate these problems.
The total amount of economically extractable power available from the wind is considerably more
than current human power use from all other sources. An estimated 72 TW of wind power on the Earth could be commercially viable**, compared to about 15 TW average global power consumption from all sources in 2008. It is important to note that not all the energy from wind flowing past a given
point can be captured and used.
Wind Power is Clean and Renewable
Wind power should be considered an important element of any long-term energy strategy, because
wind power generation uses a natural and virtually inexhaustible source of energy — the wind — to
create electricity. Which is in stark contrast to conventional power plants that rely on fossil fuels.
And wind power generation is clean; it doesn’t cause air, soil or water pollution. And, that's the
important difference between wind power and other renewable energy sources, such as nuclear power, which produces a vast amount of dangerous toxic waste, or the burning of bio-fuels that create CO2.
Disadvantages of Wind Power
Besides the pollution generated when the materials to build wind turbines are produced and
transported, there are a few other issues regarding the production of wind power for energy.
Wind turbines are noisy. Each turbine (and there are many on a wind farm) can generate the same
level of noise as a car travelling at 70 mph.
Large wind farms (the areas of land covered with wind turbines) are needed to provide entire
communities with enough electricity. Which creates an obstacle to increasing worldwide use of wind
power since the wind farms must be located on large tracts of land or along coastlines to capture
the greatest wind movement.
Building a wind farm in those areas sometimes conflicts with other uses, such as nature, agriculture, urban development, or waterfront views.
And, the wind is not reliable! Sometimes there just isn't enough wind to produce electricity on a
large scale.
Conclusion
The above issues can be partially resovled by installing your own home wind power generation system. It is easier to do and less expensive than you think - get the facts at "Wind Power for You."
With all things consider, wind power is a viable option to our energy needs and is worth investing in. Wind power reduces pollution, is sustainable and has limitless potential.
To read more about wind power and how you can make your own, go to "Wind Power Blows."
Using renewable energy is one more way to Go Green Without Suffering!
resources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power
http://environment.about.com/od/renewableenergy/a/wind_power.htm
*For more information on energy measurement visit: This link will link you to these three articles:
1)The kilowatt hour, or kilowatt-hour, (symbol kW·h, kW h) is a unit of energy equal to 1000 watt
hours or 3.6 megajoules.Taylor, Barry N. (1995). (Special publication 811). Gaithersburg, MD:
National Institute of Standards and Technology. 31. ...en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TWh
2)One Terra Watt hour is one billion kWh, also the approximate annual amount of electricity consumed
by 45,000 households www.statkraft.com/presscentre/glossary-of-statkraft-terms/
3)terawatt-hour, equal to a million megawatts or a billion kilowatts.
www.feasta.org/documents/wells/glossary.html
**Willett Kempton. "Mapping the global wind power resource". Ocean.udel.edu. Retrieved 2010-08-29.
http://www.technologystudent.com/energy1/wind8.htm
