In these days of global warming and bizarre weather patterns it is quite evident that over reliance on fossil fuels has almost brought the planet to its knees.
Clean and green energy has become more important than ever before and in this context, wind energy is a great technology to harness, it is cheap, abundantly available and perennial and above all totally non-polluting.
Wind Turbine Diagram
This easy to use technology is powered by what is known as wind turbine.
Below here, is a brief description of how this technology functions:
- Wind turbines comprise of two to three blades connected to a rotor. This rotor in turn is connected to the main shaft. When the wind moves the rotors the motion generated turns the main shaft which then spins a generator thereby producing electricity.
- Wind turbines are of mainly two types-horizontal axis and the vertical axis types. These turbines can be installed on land or off-shore in seas and oceans.
- Large commercial scale wind turbines can range in capacity from 100 kilowatts to several megawatts. It makes more commercial sense to go for large scale projects as these can be grouped together. This not only makes these more economically viable, but they are also able to collectively provide power to the electricity grid.
- Wind turbine generated electricity actually has its origin in another type f green, renewable energy-solar energy. When the sun heats a certain mass of land the air above it begins to heat and rises on account of that. The cool air that rushes in to take its place is the wind that is then used to move the blades of the wind turbine to ultimately produce electricity.
- The blades of a wind turbine need to rotate at a speed of at least 4 to 5 meters a second to start generating electricity and optimal power can be obtained at 15 meters per second.
There is something elemental and pristine about harnessing the power of the wind. Wind power in fact has been used for centuries and we are all familiar with the old wind mills. Why whole continents were discovered by ancient sailors in their wind powered ships. The fact that wind power does not pollute the environment, is a renewable source and quietly (almost) goes about helping us produce clean and green electricity adds to its allure.
In the days ahead as fossil fuels start getting depleted and also in the endeavor to clean up the environment, we will see that wind energy is going to play an increasingly significant part. Constant improvement in technology will see more and more efficient wind turbines being developed as we go along, making their contribution to the national electricity grids around the world even greater.
Both the government around the world and the leading companies of the world are working towards making this possible, as part of a collective effort to move to sustainable and non polluting forms methods of meeting the world’s energy requirements. Surely wind generated energy shows the path to a better future.
