Karzoo Carpool Great Britain
technology / Everything about wind energy...
technology
Everything about wind energy...
The history of wind energy
• Wind energy was already used as early as 5000 B.C.
• By 200 B.C. wind energy was used to propel boats along the Nile River in Egypt.
• By the 11th century, people in the Middle East were using windmills extensively for food production; returning travellers carried this idea back to Europe.
• The Dutch refined the windmill to use it for draining lakes and marshes in the Rhine River Delta. Industrialization, first in Europe and later in the U.S., led to a decline in the use of windmills. The steam engine replaced European water-pumping windmills.
• Wind energy technology made a comeback following the oil embargoes of the 1970s. Wind energy R&D introduced new ways of converting wind energy into useful power. This led to the development of a more and more efficient wind turbine.
How does a wind turbine work?
• A wind turbine is powered by the wind that turns the blades of the wind turbine. The kinetic energy of the wind is the source of the driving force of a wind turbine. The kinetic energy can be depicted by this formula:
In this formula:
- E : the kinetic energy
- f : a calculating factor without any physic meaning
- mspec : the specific mass of air (1.18 kg/m³)
- v : the velocity of the the wind
• The blades are large, to extract energy from the largest possible volume of air,
and can be angled to best catch the wind
As the wind turns the blades, the blades spin a shaft, the shaft connects to a generator and
makes electricity. The electricity is sent through transmission and distribution lines to
end-users.
• At times when the wind isn’t blowing, other types of power plants must be used to power the electricity grids.
Best location for wind power plants
• Wind power plants, or wind farms, are clusters of wind turbines used to produce electricity. Wind power plants usually have dozens of wind turbines scattered over a large area.
• The higher the altitude, the stronger the wind. So the towers are made as tall as techically feasible to get the blades at a level where the winds are strong.
• The best places for wind power plants are in coastal areas, at the tops of rounded hills,
or in open plains. Basically all places where the wind is strong and reliable.
For example, most wind power plants in the United Kingdom are in Cornwall and Wales.
• Wind turbines typically operate between 24 km/h and 68 km/h wind speed. Below 24 km/h, too little electricity is produced so that the wind turbine is turned off from the grid. Above 68 km/h, the machine is turned off the generator overloading or to forestall damage to the rotor blades, including the possibility of pieces of them being hurled away.
• Quand le vent ne souffle pas, l'électricité doit être transmise via d'autres unités de fabrication.
Wind energy pros and cons
Wind energy offers important advantages, which explains why it's the fastest-growing energy source in the world.
Pros:
- • Entirely renewable with no CO2 emissions.
- • Approx. 5% of the land at wind power plants is actually occupied by turbines, equipment, and access roads. The 95% left can be used for e.g. farming.
- • Existing technology has already relatively high-output and is affordable.
- • Wind energy decreases Europe’s dependence on instable countries.
Cons:
- • Wind power plants cannot be built everywhere, only in places where the wind is strong and reliable.
- • Wind is not a constant energy source, so it is yet unlikely that it will replace other energy sources.
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