Wind: Wind Turbines Essay

Submitted By Alseraj
Words: 1276
Pages: 6

Wind Turbines
It is a source of clean and renewable energy which will not generate any greenhouse gases, nor emit pollution or even produce any dangerous waste material.
Each unit of electricity produced by a wind turbine replaces a similar unit of energy from a conventional power station. Wind turbines have highly successful where they have been commissioned in the UK, preventing the emission of almost 1 3/4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.
Wind is an abundant and reliable source of energy. The UK, possibly being the windiest country in Europe, has abundance of wind energy which is used for making electricity. As do other windy areas such as Denmark and other parts of Scandinavia.
Wind power contributes significantly to the overall energy production of any country. Denmark is one country which gets almost 20% of its electricity from wind power.
Wind turbines use an extremely robust technology, which is designed for both local operation as well as for remote operation, and requires only periodic maintenance.
On May 23rd, 2008, the U.S. Department of Energy released a report titled "20% Wind Energy by 2030" stating that, even with contemporary wind technology, it will be possible for the U.S. to generate 20% of its electricity through wind farms by the year 2030, a move which would reduce natural gas consumption by 11% and coal consumption by 18%. China is planning on having 100 GW of wind energy installed
• 335 tons of steel
• 4.7 tons of copper
• 13 tons of fiberglass
• 3 tons of aluminum
• 1,200 tons of reinforced concret

Key advantages of this arrangement are that the turbine does not need to be pointed into the wind to be effective. This is an advantage on sites where the wind direction is highly variable, for example when integrated into buildings. The key disadvantages include the low rotational speed with the consequential higher torque and hence higher cost of the drive train, the inherently lower power coefficient, the 360 degree rotation of the aerofoil within the wind flow during each cycle and hence the highly dynamic loading on the blade, the pulsating torque generated by some rotor designs on the drive train, and the difficulty of modelling the wind flow accurately and hence the challenges of analysing and designing the rotor prior to fabricating a prototype.[citation needed]
Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form of energy, such as using wind turbines to make electricity, windmills for mechanical power, windpumps for water pumping or drainage, or sails to propel ships.

If you haven't noticed real estate is crap now and there aren't exactly humongous populations in the whole of the dakotas. I rather have wind power over nuclear power because of the toxic waste which nuclear power creates over it's lifetime which take thousands of years to nuetralize. Someone has to deal with that at some point because right now we're so mentally challenged we haven't figured out a way to resolve that issue. Obviously wind power is not the only solution nor is the right solution for certain geographical areas and should be used in conjunction with other technologies. The same fields where these wind power generators are located could also be used for biodiesel production. This would also generate a bunch of jobs for people in the middle of nowhere... I think you're missing the bigger picture.
And wind power generation is clean; it doesn’t cause air, soil or water pollution. That’s an important difference between wind power and some other renewable energy sources, such as nuclear power, which produces a vast amount of hard-to-manage waste.
Physically, not at all. Some people believe them to be unslightly, and some also complain about the continual whirring noise they make, but they don't create any actual pollutants.

The first electricity generating wind turbine, was a battery charging machine installed in July 1887 by Scottish academic James Blyth to light