Electric Generator
Wind Energy: Utilize The Wind Power
An oil shortage in the 1970s lead to a new industry that had interest in alternative energy sources, that paved the way for new technology that lead to using windmills to give off electricity. The wind machine works like an old fashioned windmill, the wind machine uses blades to get to gather the winds possessing the energy. The wind that flows over the blades cause them to lift and spin, the blades are connected to a drive shaft that is able to turn an electric generator that can produce the electricity needed.
The wind farms usually has dozens of wind machines that are mapped out around a certain large area to produce energy. The history of the world’s largest wind farm located in Texas called the Horse Hollow Wind Energy Center, this center has 421 wind turbines that is able to generate electricity to power 220,000 residential homes per year. With large scale of the wind farms that are usually connected to the local electric power transmission network. The power source is favored by many of the environmentalist as a different source besides fossil fuels. Which it is plentiful, renewable, widely distributed, and with lower effects on greenhouse gas emissions on the earth. Even though the construction of the wind farms is not accepted due to the visual impact of the environment itself.
Related posts
Wind Energy: A Brief History
Harnessing wind energy has been a task for mankind since 1000 b.c. Beginning with the simple cloth sail to use the energy from wind to propel boats, early civilizations realized the inherent power of wind and continued to invent new technologies in order to efficiently use this renewable energy source. The Persians continued this research into utilization of wind energy by creating one of the first known vertical axis windmill systems around 500 a.d. This windmill was primarily used for the grinding of grains and the pumping of water for irrigation purposes. Information of this wind energy harnessing ability spread throughout Asia and Europe over time and newer more efficient windmills were developed. Most uses of wind energy consisted of only direct action from wind on turbines which were used to simply automate what normally took an inordinate amount of time by human hands. Wind energy was being harnessed not for its potential energy but rather for its current energy. People of this time period could not discover a way to save the energy that was collected; wind energy had to be used as it flowed past the blades of the turbine. When this technology arrived in America around 1850, it was primarily used for the same purposes; pumping water to the many farm homes in need of irrigation and for allowing livestock fresh water to drink. During the late 19th century, Charles Brush was able to develop the first wind powered turbine that generated electricity in the United States. Even though his windmill was innovative for the time, it had a few drawbacks. Due to its low blade speed, the 17-meter rotor would only generate around 12 kilowatts. Modern rotors of similar size can generate up to 100 kilowatts of power.
Read the rest of this entry »
Related posts