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                                                           Wind Power Project

                       
                                                        Harnessing Wind Power 

       
Long before there was electricity, humans realized that you could harness the power of the wind. Both Europeans and Early Americans used wind to run the mills in which they ground flower. In later years windmills were used on farms as a way to pump water out of the ground.
In more recent years we have seen wind “power” come back into play, by way of “wind farms” along predominantly the west coast. These farms use wind turbines to generate electricity. With fossil fuels becoming ever scarcer we are looking for alternative ways to power our homes and factories. Naturally we turned back to wind as a viable option, after all, humans have been using wind as a way to generate energy, and make otherwise back breaking jobs easier.
Today we are going to take a look at one of the simplest forms of wind energy. We are going to construct a windmill; we will then harness the power of the wind to lift an object that is much too heavy for the wind to move by itself.


Materials you will need

• ¾” PVC or CPVC pipe (approximately 6 feet long)
• 2 – ¾” pipe caps
• 4 – ¾” elbows
• 4 – 3/4 “ tees
• 1 – 8” x 11” piece of thick card stock (for the rotor blades)
• 1 – 3/16” diameter dowel rod (approximately 18” needed)
• 3-6 – Popsicle sticks
• Fishing line or string
• Hot glue gun and approximately 3 sticks of glue
• A small saw or pipe cutter to cut the pipe
• A drill and 3/16” drill bit
• Sand Paper

Terms you might want to be familiar with (or look up) before you start

• Wind power
• Wind turbine
• Rotor
• Work
• Aerodynamics
• Efficiency
• Energy
• Tower
• Foundation
• Nacelle

                                          
 
The first thing we need to do is assemble the foundation of your wind turbine.

• Using a saw or pipe cutter cut 4 pieces of the 3/4″ pvc pipe at 5″ lengths
• Cut two longer sections of 3/4″ pvc pipe (approximately 7″ lengths) for the two solid legs of the foundation.
• Assemble the outer rim of the foundation with pvc fittings as needed as shown in the above photo
• Measure the length you will need to span across the middle of your foundation then subtract approximately 2″ to allow for the “T” fitting and cut this piece of pipe as well.
• Cut the cross member in half and finish assembling the foundation of your wind turbine as shown in the above photo.

                                     

Now we need to assemble the “Nacelle” of the wind turbine.

• Cut one piece of your 3/4″ pvc pipe approximately 12″ long
• Then cut a piece about 2″ long off that
• Connect these two pieces with a tee in the middle as shown above
• Put the pipe caps on each end
• Then drill a 3/16” or slightly larger hole through each of the end caps … and be sure to get them as close to center as possible since this will be where the axle of your rotor will be

                                             
Now we need to assemble the rotor and axle.

• Take your three Popsicle sticks and tape them together on top of each other
• Using the drill, make a 3/16″ hole through all three of them with the center of the drill point at about 3/8″ to 1/2″ distance from one of the ends
• Cut your 3/16″ dowel to a length of about 18”
• Attach the three popsicle sticks through the dowel holes drilled (adjust as needed but these should be a tight fit)
• Make sure that the popsicle sticks are positioned in a Y formation as shown above, each one equal distance from the next. Then apply some hot glue to hold them in place.

 Next we need to construct the rotor blades.

• Take the sheet of card stock and measure out three 4” x 8” rectangles
• Cut them out
• Using clear scotch tape fold each rotor section in half long ways and tape where they meet, ensure that you do not crush the paper (you want the end of the rotor blade to look like a tear drop)
• Do the same with all three rotor blades
• Using hot glue fasten the blades to the popsicle sticks that are serving as the frame work for your rotor (the popsicle sticks go inside the blade to keep them aerodynamic)

Final assembly

• Cut another piece of the PVC pipe approximately 24” long (this will be the tower of your turbine
• On one end sand down the PVC pipe approximately 1” from the end (this will ensure that your nacelle will be able to rotate freely to face the direction the wind is coming from)
• Place the axle of your rotor assembly through the holes you have drilled in the ends of the nacelle
• Place the nacelle atop the tower

                                                    
Let’s use the wind power now

• From here you are going to want to tie the weight you are going to be lifting to the back end of the axle that is sticking out of the nacelle. (make the string a little longer that the length of the tower so the weight is lying on the ground to start)
• Wait for the wind (if none is present you can use a box fan to simulate the wind)

Now observe your wind turbine in motion. Notice how the wind alone would not be able to lift the weight you have tied to the axle of your rotor, but when it is harnessed correctly the wind can lift the weight. In fact if you experiment a little in windy conditions you will likely find that your turbine will be able to lift things that are quite heavy when you consider the scale of the experiment.
        


   
                                                    XXX  .  XXX      Wind energy  

Wind energy is a form of solar energy.Wind energy (or wind power) describes the process by which wind is used to generate electricity. Wind turbines convert the kinetic energy in the wind into mechanical power. A generator can convert mechanical power into electricity. Mechanical power can also be utilized directly for specific tasks such as pumping water. The US DOE developed a short wind power animation that provides an overview of how a wind turbine works and describes the wind resources in the United States.

                             

 

Wind Energy Basics

Wind is caused by the uneven heating of the atmosphere by the sun, variations in the earth's surface, and rotation of the earth. Mountains, bodies of water, and vegetation all influence wind flow patterns. Wind turbines convert the energy in wind to electricity by rotating propeller-like blades around a rotor. The rotor turns the drive shaft, which turns an electric generator. Three key factors affect the amount of energy a turbine can harness from the wind: wind speed, air density, and swept area.

Equation for Wind Power

• Wind speed

The amount of energy in the wind varies with the cube of the wind speed, in other words, if the wind speed doubles, there is eight times more energy in the wind (). Small changes in wind speed have a large impact on the amount of power available in the wind .

• Density of the air

The more dense the air, the more energy received by the turbine. Air density varies with elevation and temperature. Air is less dense at higher elevations than at sea level, and warm air is less dense than cold air. All else being equal, turbines will produce more power at lower elevations and in locations with cooler average temperatures .

• Swept area of the turbine

The larger the swept area (the size of the area through which the rotor spins), the more power the turbine can capture from the wind. Since swept area is , where r = radius of the rotor, a small increase in blade length results in a larger increase in the power available to the turbine.

DOE Wind Programs and Information

• DOE's Wind Energy Technologies Office works to improve the performance, lower the costs, and accelerate the deployment of innovative wind and water power technologies. Greater use of the nation's abundant wind and water resources for electric power generation will help stabilize energy costs, enhance energy security, and improve our environment.

• WINDExchange is a nationwide initiative designed to increase the use of wind energy across the United States by working with regional stakeholders. The WINDExchange program illustrates the Department of Energy's commitment to dramatically increase the use of wind energy in the United States. The WINDExchange website provides a wide range of wind-related information, including: State-by-state breakdowns of wind resource potential, success stories, installed wind capacity, news, events, and other resources, which are updated regularly.

• The National Wind Technology Center (NWTC) is the nation's premier wind energy technology research facility. The goal of the research conducted at NWTC is to help industry reduce the cost of energy so that wind can compete with traditional energy sources, providing a clean, renewable alternative for our nation's energy needs.

Worldwide Installed Capacity

Country	Total Capacity, end of 2014 (MW)	Total Capacity, June 2010 (MW)	Total Capacity, end of 2009 (MW)
U.S.	65,900	36,300	35,159
China	114,600	33,800	25,853
Germany	40,000	26,400	25,813
Spain	23,000	19,500	18,748
India	22,500	12,100	10,827
France	9,300	5,000	4,775
U.K	12,200	4,600	4,340
Portugal	4,953	3,800	3,474
Denmark	4,883	3,700	3,408

United States Installed Capacity

In the U.S., installed wind energy capacity has advanced significantly over the past ten years. As of the third quarter of 2017, the U.S. now has an installed wind capacity of 84,944 MW with over 29,634 MW of wind currently under construction or in advanced development—a 27% year-over-year increase, the highest since the American Wind Energy Association began tracking the categories.

Wind Farm Development

Siting a wind farm varies from one location to another, but there are some important matters for land owners to consider:

1. Understand your wind resource
2. Evaluate distance from existing transmission lines
3. Determine benefits of and barriers to allowing your land to be developed
4. Establish access to capital
5. Identify reliable power purchaser or market
6. Address siting and project feasibility considerations
7. Understand wind energy’s economics
8. Obtain zoning and permitting expertise
9. Establish dialogue with turbine manufacturers and project developers
10. Secure agreement to meet O&M needs

Necessary Services to Avail

Wind power project or WPP involves development through own resources and manpower or by availing the technical services from consultant organisations :

1. SITE IDENTIFICATION: The process starts with regional overviews and precision GIS mapping, through which the specific opportunities are determined at a feasible site. This also involves mapping of project boundaries, turbine micro-siting and optimisation.
2. WIND RESOURCE ASSESSMENT: Accurate Wind Resource Assessment of a widely variable resource is the most critical feature for success of a WPP. Meso-Scale and then Micro-Scale Wind Power Density/Wind Speed Map is produced for the site location through input of accurate contour/terrain data. Ideal spot is selected to install Anemometry System. The recorded wind data is critically analyzed and formatted to represent wind characteristics.
3. MICRO-SITING & ENERGY ESTIMATION: This constitutes the foundation of a Wind Power Project. Wind Resource data is formatted in terms of Speed and direction. The characteristic power of selected Wind Electric Generator (WEG) is formatted. Detailed Contour data at close interval is prepared indicating roughness and terrain features. WEG layout is optimised and Micro-siting Map is prepared using software and then estimated is energy generation.
4. DETAILED PROJECT REPORT: Once the site, make and rating of WEG and the selling option are finalized, detailed survey and field study is conducted. Comprehensive layout design is prepared with optimization of generation along with detailed design for approach road and grid evacuation. Detailed costing and financial analysis is carried out to establish overall viability.
5. PROJECT MANAGEMENT: Implementation and Management of Wind power project, WPP, calls for Multi-disciplinary activities related to Technical, Financial and Commercial aspects. Not only quality of works needs to be checked, it is equally important to ensure close co-ordination and monitoring for timely commissioning.
6. MONITORING: Energy generation with respect to wind resource, frequency and type of machine and system failures needs to be critically monitored and analyzed to optimize generation. Income from WPP can be optimized only if break down and failure of WEG and evacuation system is avoided particularly during the limited high wind months.
7. PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT: For the existing Wind Power projects also there is often need to ensure its performance improvement, which goes down with time. Critical analysis of monitoring reports along with on-site observations and in depth study immensely help in performance improvement through reduction in break-down time and interval losses. Due to seasonal availability of wind resource, generation increasing in cubic proportion of wind speed and overall low Plant Load Factor, parameter setting and operational/control logic needs to be site specific.
8. LENDER'S ENGINEERS: To meet the need of expert engineers to serve a project especially for a definite term or contract, where the task may not be managed with the available resources, the clients are provided Lenders Engineer’s services as per the requirements assessed mutually with the client. This involves serving through deputing or appointing suitable personnel and thus meeting the need of the project at a given point of time of various technical types.

                                   Land Requirements

The amount of land required for a wind farm varies considerably, and is particularly dependent on two key factors: the desired size of the wind farm (which can be defined either by installed capacity or the number of turbines) and the characteristics of the local terrain. Typically, wind turbine spacing is determined by the rotor diameter and local wind conditions. Some estimates suggest spacing turbines between 5 and 10 rotor diameters apart. If prevailing winds are generally from the same direction, turbines may be installed 3 or 4 rotor diameters apart (in the direction perpendicular to the prevailing winds); under multi-directional wind conditions, spacing of between 5 and 7 rotor diameters is recommended .

                                  

         The Shepherds Flat Wind Farm is an 845 MW wind farm in the U.S. state of Oregon.

 

                                             

                                Offshore wind turbines near Copenhagen, Denmark.

 

Experimental and proposed wind farms

There exist also some wind farms which were mainly built for testing wind turbines. In such wind farms, there is usually from each type to be tested only a single wind turbine. Such farms have usually at least one meteorological tower. An example of an experimental wind farm is Ø sterild Wind Turbine Test Field.
For some time, airborne wind farms have been discussed.An airborne wind farm is a group of airborne wind energy systems near to each other, connected to the grid in the same point.

 

The Pubnico Wind Farm taken from Beach Point, Lower East Pubnico, Nova Scotia

Environmental impact

Livestock ignore wind turbines , and continue to graze as they did before wind turbines were installed.

Compared to the environmental impact of traditional energy sources, the environmental impact of wind power is relatively minor. Wind power consumes no fuel, and emits no air pollution, unlike fossil fuel power sources. The energy consumed to manufacture and transport the materials used to build a wind power plant is equal to the new energy produced by the plant within a few months. While a wind farm may cover a large area of land, many land uses such as agriculture are compatible, with only small areas of turbine foundations and infrastructure made unavailable for use.
There are reports of bird and bat mortality at wind turbines as there are around other artificial structures. The scale of the ecological impact may or may not be significant, depending on specific circumstances. The estimated number of bird deaths caused by wind turbines in the United States is between 140,000 and 328,000, whereas deaths caused by domestic cats in the United States are estimated to be between 1.3 and 4.0 billion birds each year and over 100 million birds are killed in the United States each year by impact with windows. Prevention and mitigation of wildlife fatalities, and protection of peat bogs, affect the siting and operation of wind turbines.

Human health

There have been multiple scientific, peer-reviewed studies into wind farm noise, which have concluded that infrasound from wind farms is not a hazard to human health and there is no verifiable evidence for 'Wind Turbine Syndrome', although some suggest further research might still be useful
A 2007 report by the U.S. National Research Council noted that noise produced by wind turbines is generally not a major concern for humans beyond a half-mile or so. Low-frequency vibration and its effects on humans are not well understood and sensitivity to such vibration resulting from wind-turbine noise is highly variable among humans. There are opposing views on this subject, and more research needs to be done on the effects of low-frequency noise on humans.
In a 2009 report about "Rural Wind Farms", a Standing Committee of the Parliament of New South Wales, Australia, recommended a minimum setback of two kilometres between wind turbines and neighbouring houses (which can be waived by the affected neighbour) as a precautionary approach
A 2014 paper suggests that the 'Wind Turbine Syndrome' is mainly caused by the nocebo effect and other psychological mechanisms.

Effect on power grid

Utility-scale wind farms must have access to transmission lines to transport energy. The wind farm developer may be obliged to install extra equipment or control systems in the wind farm to meet the technical standards set by the operator of a transmission line. The company or person that develops the wind farm can then sell the power on the grid through the transmission lines and ultimately chooses whether to hold on to the rights or sell the farm or parts of it to big business like GE, for example .

Ground radar interference

Wind farm interference (in yellow circle) on radar map

Wind farms can interfere with ground radar systems used for military, weather and air traffic control. The large, rapidly moving blades of the turbines can return signals to the radar that can be mistaken as an aircraft or weather pattern. Actual aircraft and weather patterns around wind farms can be accurately detected, as there is no fundamental physical constraint preventing that. But aging radar infrastructure is significantly challenged with the task. The US military is using wind turbines on some bases, including Barstow near the radar test facility.

Effects

The level of interference is a function of the signal processors used within the radar, the speed of the aircraft and the relative orientation of wind turbines/aircraft with respect to the radar. An aircraft flying above the wind farm's turning blades could become impossible to detect because the blade tips can be moving at nearly aircraft velocity. Studies are currently being performed to determine the level of this interference and will be used in future site planning. Issues include masking (shadowing), clutter (noise), and signal alteration. Radar issues have stalled as much as 10,000 MW of projects in USA.
Some very long range radars are not affected by wind farms.

Mitigation

Permanent problem solving include a non-initiation window to hide the turbines while still tracking aircraft over the wind farm, and a similar method mitigates the false returns. England's Newcastle Airport is using a short-term mitigation; to "blank" the turbines on the radar map with a software patch. Wind turbine blades using stealth technology are being developed to mitigate radar reflection problems for aviation As well as stealth windfarms, the future development of infill radar systems could filter out the turbine interference.
In early 2011, the U.S. government awarded a program to build a radar/wind turbine analysis tool. This tool will allow developers to predict the impact of a wind farm on a radar system before construction, thus allowing rearrangement of the turbines or even the entire wind farm to avoid negative impacts on the radar system.^[
A mobile radar system, the Lockheed Martin TPS-77, has shown in recent tests that it can distinguish between aircraft and wind turbines, and more than 170 TPS-77 radars are in use around the world. In Britain, the Lockheed Martin TPS-77 system was to be installed at Trimingham in Norfolk to remove military objections to a series of offshore wind farms in the North Sea. A second TPS-77 was to be installed in the Scottish Borders, overcoming objections to a 48-turbine wind farm at Fallago.

Radio reception interference

There are also reports of negative effects on radio and television reception in wind farm communities. Potential solutions include predictive interference modeling as a component of site selection.

Agriculture

A 2010 study found that in the immediate vicinity of wind farms, the climate is cooler during the day and slightly warmer during the night than the surrounding areas due to the turbulence generated by the blades.
In another study an analysis carried out on corn and soybean crops in the central areas of the United States noted that the microclimate generated by wind turbines improves crops as it prevents the late spring and early autumn frosts, and also reduces the action of pathogenic fungi that grow on the leaves. Even at the height of summer heat, the lowering of 2.5–3 degrees above the crops due to turbulence caused by the blades, can make a difference for the cultivation of corn

Energy efficiency

Moving towards energy sustainability will require changes not only in the way energy is supplied, but in the way it is used, and reducing the amount of energy required to deliver various goods or services is essential. Opportunities for improvement on the demand side of the energy equation are as rich and diverse as those on the supply side, and often offer significant economic benefits.
Renewable energy and energy efficiency are sometimes said to be the "twin pillars" of sustainable energy policy. Both resources must be developed in order to stabilize and reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Efficiency slows down energy demand growth so that rising clean energy supplies can make deep cuts in fossil fuel use. If energy use grows too fast, renewable energy development will chase a receding target. A recent historical analysis has demonstrated that the rate of energy efficiency improvements has generally been outpaced by the rate of growth in energy demand, which is due to continuing economic and population growth. As a result, despite energy efficiency gains, total energy use and related carbon emissions have continued to increase. Thus, given the thermodynamic and practical limits of energy efficiency improvements, slowing the growth in energy demand is essential. However, unless clean energy supplies come online rapidly, slowing demand growth will only begin to reduce total emissions; reducing the carbon content of energy sources is also needed. Any serious vision of a sustainable energy economy thus requires commitments to both renewables and efficiency.
Renewable energy (and energy efficiency) are no longer niche sectors that are promoted only by governments and environmentalists. The increased levels of investment and the fact that much of the capital is coming from more conventional financial actors suggest that sustainable energy options are now becoming mainstream

Smart-grid technology

Smart grid refers to a class of technology people are using to bring utility electricity delivery systems into the 21st century, using computer-based remote control and automation. These systems are made possible by two-way communication technology and computer processing that has been used for decades in other industries. They are beginning to be used on electricity networks, from the power plants and wind farms all the way to the consumers of electricity in homes and businesses. They offer many benefits to utilities and consumers—mostly seen in big improvements in energy efficiency on the electricity grid and in the energy users’ homes and offices .

Local green energy systems

A small Quietrevolution QR5 Gorlov type vertical axis wind turbine in Bristol, England. Measuring 3 m in diameter and 5 m high, it has a nameplate rating of 6.5 kW to the grid.

Main article: Microgeneration

Those not satisfied with the third-party grid approach to green energy via the power grid can install their own locally based renewable energy system. Renewable energy electrical systems from solar to wind to even local hydro-power in some cases, are some of the many types of renewable energy systems available locally. Additionally, for those interested in heating and cooling their dwelling via renewable energy, geothermal heat pump systems that tap the constant temperature of the earth, which is around 7 to 15 degrees Celsius a few feet underground and increases dramatically at greater depths, are an option over conventional natural gas and petroleum-fueled heat approaches. Also, in geographic locations where the Earth's Crust is especially thin, or near volcanoes (as is the case in Iceland) there exists the potential to generate even more electricity than would be possible at other sites, thanks to a more significant temperature gradient at these locales.
The advantage of this approach in the United States is that many states offer incentives to offset the cost of installation of a renewable energy system. In California, Massachusetts and several other U.S. states, a new approach to community energy supply called Community Choice Aggregation has provided communities with the means to solicit a competitive electricity supplier and use municipal revenue bonds to finance development of local green energy resources. Individuals are usually assured that the electricity they are using is actually produced from a green energy source that they control. Once the system is paid for, the owner of a renewable energy system will be producing their own renewable electricity for essentially no cost and can sell the excess to the local utility at a profit.

Using green energy

A 01 KiloWatt Micro Windmill for Domestic Usage

Renewable energy, after its generation, needs to be stored in a medium for use with autonomous devices as well as vehicles. Also, to provide household electricity in remote areas (that is areas which are not connected to the mains electricity grid), energy storage is required for use with renewable energy. Energy generation and consumption systems used in the latter case are usually stand-alone power systems.
Some examples are:

• energy carriers as hydrogen, liquid nitrogen, compressed air, oxyhydrogen, batteries, to power vehicles.
• flywheel energy storage, pumped-storage hydroelectricity is more usable in stationary applications (e.g. to power homes and offices). In household power systems, conversion of energy can also be done to reduce smell. For example, organic matter such as cow dung and spoilable organic matter can be converted to biochar. To eliminate emissions, carbon capture and storage is then used.

Usually however, renewable energy is derived from the mains electricity grid. This means that energy storage is mostly not used, as the mains electricity grid is organized to produce the exact amount of energy being consumed at that particular moment. Energy production on the mains electricity grid is always set up as a combination of (large-scale) renewable energy plants, as well as other power plants as fossil-fuel power plants and nuclear power. This combination however, which is essential for this type of energy supply (as e.g. wind turbines, solar power plants etc.) can only produce when the wind blows and the sun shines. This is also one of the main drawbacks of the system as fossil fuel powerplants are polluting and are a main cause of global warming (nuclear power being an exception). Although fossil fuel power plants too can be made emissionless (through carbon capture and storage), as well as renewable (if the plants are converted to e.g. biomass) the best solution is still to phase out the latter power plants over time. Nuclear power plants too can be more or less eliminated from their problem of nuclear waste through the use of nuclear reprocessing and newer plants as fast breeder and nuclear fusion plants.
Renewable energy power plants do provide a steady flow of energy. For example, hydropower plants, ocean thermal plants, osmotic power plants all provide power at a regulated pace, and are thus available power sources at any given moment (even at night, windstill moments etc.). At present however, the number of steady-flow renewable energy plants alone is still too small to meet energy demands at the times of the day when the irregular producing renewable energy plants cannot produce power.
Besides the greening of fossil fuel and nuclear power plants, another option is the distribution and immediate use of power from solely renewable sources. In this set-up energy storage is again not necessary. For example, TREC has proposed to distribute solar power from the Sahara to Europe. Europe can distribute wind and ocean power to the Sahara and other countries. In this way, power is produced at any given time as at any point of the planet as the sun or the wind is up or ocean waves and currents are stirring. This option however is probably not possible in the short-term, as fossil fuel and nuclear power are still the main sources of energy on the mains electricity net and replacing them will not be possible overnight.
Several large-scale energy storage suggestions for the grid have been done. Worldwide there is over 100 GW of Pumped-storage hydroelectricity. This improves efficiency and decreases energy losses but a conversion to an energy storing mains electricity grid is a very costly solution. Some costs could potentially be reduced by making use of energy storage equipment the consumer buys and not the state. An example is batteries in electric cars that would double as an energy buffer for the electricity grid. However besides the cost, setting-up such a system would still be a very complicated and difficult procedure. Also, energy storage apparatus' as car batteries are also built with materials that pose a threat to the environment (e.g. Lithium). The combined production of batteries for such a large part of the population would still have environmental concerns. Besides car batteries however, other Grid energy storage projects make use of less polluting energy carriers (e.g. compressed air tanks and flywheel energy storage).

Wind

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory projects that the levelized cost of wind power in the U.S. will decline about 25% from 2012 to 2030.

Bangui Wind Farm in the Philippines.

Wind energy research dates back several decades to the 1970s when NASA developed an analytical model to predict wind turbine power generation during high winds. Today, both Sandia National Laboratories and National Renewable Energy Laboratory have programs dedicated to wind research. Sandia’s laboratory focuses on the advancement of materials, aerodynamics, and sensors. The NREL wind projects are centered on improving wind plant power production, reducing their capital costs, and making wind energy more cost effective overall. The Field Laboratory for Optimized Wind Energy (FLOWE) at Caltech was established to research renewable approaches to wind energy farming technology practices that have the potential to reduce the cost, size, and environmental impact of wind energy production. The president of Sky WindPower Corporation thinks that wind turbines will be able to produce electricity at a cent/kWh at an average which in comparison to coal-generated electricity is a fractional of the cost.
A wind farm is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electric power. A large wind farm may consist of several hundred individual wind turbines, and cover an extended area of hundreds of square miles, but the land between the turbines may be used for agricultural or other purposes. A wind farm may also be located offshore.
Many of the largest operational onshore wind farms are located in the USA and China. The Gansu Wind Farm in China has over 5,000 MW installed with a goal of 20,000 MW by 2020. China has several other "wind power bases" of similar size. The Alta Wind Energy Center in California is the largest onshore wind farm outside of China, with a capacity of 1020 MW of power. Europe leads in the use of wind power with almost 66 GW, about 66 percent of the total globally, with Denmark in the lead according to the countries installed per-capita capacity. As of February 2012, the Walney Wind Farm in United Kingdom is the largest offshore wind farm in the world at 367 MW, followed by Thanet Wind Farm (300 MW), also in the UK.
There are many large wind farms under construction and these include BARD Offshore 1 (400 MW), Clyde Wind Farm (350 MW), Greater Gabbard wind farm (500 MW), Lincs Wind Farm (270 MW), London Array (1000 MW), Lower Snake River Wind Project (343 MW), Macarthur Wind Farm (420 MW), Shepherds Flat Wind Farm (845 MW), and Sheringham Shoal (317 MW).
Wind power has expanded quickly, its share of worldwide electricity usage at the end of 2014 was 3.1% .


                                 XXX  .  XXX 4% zero null 0 Wind Basics

Energy from moving air

                            

Wind is caused by uneven heating of the earth's surface by the sun. Because the earth's surface is made up of different types of land and water, it absorbs the sun's heat at different rates. One example of this uneven heating is the daily wind cycle.

The daily wind cycle

During the day, air above the land heats up faster than air over water. Warm air over land expands and rises, and heavier, cooler air rushes in to take its place, creating wind. At night, the winds are reversed because air cools more rapidly over land than it does over water.

In the same way, the atmospheric winds that circle the earth are created because the land near the earth's equator is hotter than the land near the North Pole and the South Pole.

Wind energy for electricity generation

Today, wind energy is mainly used to generate electricity. Water pumping windmills were once used throughout the United States and some still operate on farms and ranches, mainly to supply water for livestock

Electricity Generation from Wind

Diagram of wind turbine components

Source: National Renewable Energy Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy (public domain)

How wind turbines work

Wind turbines use blades to collect the wind’s kinetic energy. Wind flows over the blades creating lift (similar to the effect on airplane wings), which causes the blades to turn. The blades are connected to a drive shaft that turns an electric generator, which produces the electricity.

Electricity generation with wind

In 2016, wind turbines in the United States were the source of nearly 6% of total U.S. utility-scale electricity generation.

The amount of electricity generated from wind has grown significantly since 2000. Electricity generation from wind in the United States increased from about 6 billion kilo watt hours (kWh) in 2000 to about 226 billion kWh in 2016.


New technologies have decreased the cost of producing electricity from wind, and growth in wind power has been encouraged by government and industry incentives.

Where Wind is Harnessed

Wind power plants require careful planning

Operating a wind power plant is more complex than simply erecting wind turbines in a windy area. Wind power plant owners must carefully plan where to position wind turbines and must consider how fast and how often the wind blows at the site.

Wind turbines in the ocean

 

Wind speed typically increases with altitude and increases over open areas without windbreaks. Good sites for wind turbines include the tops of smooth, rounded hills; open plains and water; and mountain gaps that funnel and intensify wind.

Wind speeds are not the same across the country

Wind speeds vary throughout the United States. Wind speeds also vary throughout the day and from season to season. In Tehachapi, California, the wind blows more frequently from April through October than it does in the winter. This fluctuation is a result of the extreme heat of the Mojave Desert during the summer months. As the hot air over the desert rises, the cooler, denser air above the Pacific Ocean rushes through the Tehachapi mountain pass to take its place. In a high altitude Great Plains state like Montana, strong winter winds channeled through the Rocky Mountain valleys create more intense winds during the winter.

Fortunately, the seasonal variations in wind speeds in California and Montana match the electricity demands of consumers in those states. In California, people use more electricity during the summer for air conditioners. In Montana, people use more electricity, in general, during the winter.

Locations of U.S. wind power projects

In 2016, 40 states had utility-scale wind power projects. The five states with the most electricity generation from wind in 2016 were Texas, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, and California. These states combined produced about 55% of total U.S. wind electricity generation in 2016.

International wind power

About 90 countries generate electricity with wind energy. Most wind power projects are located in Europe and in the United States where government programs have supported wind power development. China and India have increased wind electricity generation in recent years and were among the top five producers of electricity generation from wind in 2014. The United States led the world in wind power generation in 2014, followed by China, Germany, Spain, and India.

Offshore wind power

The waters off the coasts of the United States have significant potential for electricity generation from wind energy. The first U.S. offshore wind power project began operation off the coast of Rhode Island in 2016. Several other wind projects off the U.S. East Coast are in the planning stages. Europe has a number of operating offshore wind energy projects.
There are two basic types of wind turbines:

• Horizontal-axis turbines
• Vertical-axis turbines

The size of wind turbines varies widely. The length of the blades is the biggest factor in determining the amount of electricity a wind turbine can generate. Small wind turbines that can power a single home may have an electricity generating capacity of 10 kilowatts (kW). The largest turbines have generating capacities of 5,000 kW to 8,000 kW. Large turbines are often grouped together to create wind power plants, or wind farms, that provide power to electricity grids.

Horizontal-axis turbines are similar to propeller airplane engines

Horizontal-axis turbines have blades like airplane propellers, and they commonly have three blades. The largest horizontal-axis turbines are as tall as 20-story buildings and have blades more than 100 feet long. Taller turbines with longer blades generate more electricity. Nearly all of the wind turbines currently in use are horizontal-axis turbines.

Vertical-axis turbines look like egg beaters

Vertical-axis turbines have blades that are attached to the top and the bottom of a vertical rotor. The most common type of vertical-axis turbine—the Darrieus wind turbine, named after the French engineer Georges Darrieus who patented the design in 1931—looks like a giant, two-bladed egg beater. Some versions of the vertical-axis turbine are 100 feet tall and 50 feet wide. Very few vertical-axis wind turbines are in use today because they do not perform as well as horizontal-axis turbines.

Wind power plants, or wind farms, produce electricity
Wind power plants, or wind farms, are clusters of wind turbines that produce large amounts of electricity. A wind farm usually has many turbines scattered over a large area. One of the world's largest wind farms, the Horse Hollow Wind Energy Center in Texas, has about 420 wind turbines spread over about 47,000 acres. The project has a combined electricity generating capacity of about 735 megawatts (or 735,000 kW).

Flash Back of Wind Power

People have been using wind energy for thousands of years

People used wind energy to propel boats along the Nile River as early as 5,000 BC. By 200 BC, simple wind-powered water pumps were used in China, and windmills with woven-reed blades were grinding grain in Persia and the Middle East.

New ways to use wind energy eventually spread around the world. By the 11th century, people in the Middle East were using windpumps and windmills extensively for food production. Merchants and the Crusaders brought wind technology to Europe. The Dutch developed large wind pumps to drain lakes and marshes in the Rhine River Delta. Immigrants from Europe eventually took wind energy technology to the Western Hemisphere.

American colonists used windmills to grind grain, to pump water, and to cut wood at sawmills. Homesteaders and ranchers installed thousands of wind pumps as they settled the western United States. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, small wind-electric generators (turbines) were also widely used.

When power lines were built to transmit electricity to rural areas in the 1930s, wind pump and small turbine use began to decline. However, some ranches still use wind pumps to supply water for livestock. Small wind turbines are becoming common again, mainly to supply electricity in remote and rural areas.

Wind energy use expanded in the wake of oil shortages and environmental concerns

The oil shortages of the 1970s changed the energy environment for the United States and the world. The oil shortages created an interest in developing ways to use alternative energy sources, such as wind energy, to generate electricity. The U.S. federal government supported research and development of large wind turbines. In the early 1980s, thousands of wind turbines were installed in California, largely because of federal and state policies that encouraged the use of renewable energy sources.

In the 1990s and 2000s, the U.S. federal government established incentives to use renewable energy sources in response to a renewed concern for the environment. The federal government also provided research and development funding to help reduce the cost of wind turbines and offered tax and investment incentives for wind power projects. In addition, state governments enacted new requirements for electricity generation from renewable sources, and electric power marketers and utilities began to offer green power to their customers. These policies and programs resulted in an increase in the number of wind turbines and in the amount of electricity generated from wind energy.

The share of U.S. electricity generation from wind in 1990 was less than 1%. In 2016, the share of U.S. electricity generation from wind was about 6%. Incentives in Europe have resulted in a large expansion of wind energy use there. China is investing heavily in wind energy and now has the world's largest wind electricity generation capacity.

 

Wind Energy & the Environment

Wind is an emissions-free source of energy

Wind is a renewable energy source. Overall, using wind to produce energy has fewer effects on the environment than many other energy sources. Wind turbines do not release emissions that can pollute the air or water (with rare exceptions), and they do not require water for cooling. Wind turbines may also reduce the amount of electricity generation from fossil fuels, which results in lower total air pollution and carbon dioxide emissions.

An individual wind turbine has a relatively small physical footprint. Groups of wind turbines, sometimes called wind farms, are located on open land, on mountain ridges, or offshore in lakes or the ocean.

Wind turbines have some negative effects on the environment

Modern wind turbines can be very large machines, and they may visually affect the landscape. A small number of wind turbines have also caught fire, and some have leaked lubricating fluids, but these occurrences are rare. Some people do not like the sound that wind turbine blades make as they turn in the wind. Some types of wind turbines and wind projects cause bird and bat deaths. These deaths may contribute to declines in the population of species also affected by other human-related impacts. The wind energy industry and the U.S. government are researching ways to reduce the effect of wind turbines on birds and bats.

Most wind power projects on land require service roads that add to the physical effects on the environment. Wind turbines may also use rare earth minerals. These minerals are often located in countries with less stringent environmental standards than the United States, and mining these minerals can have negative effects on the environment. Producing the metals and other materials used to make wind turbines and the concrete used for their foundations requires energy that may have been produced by fossil fuels.                         

                                                       Importance of Wind Energy

1. Why wind energy?
2. Pollution saving potential of wind energy
3. Comparison between Fossil Fuels and Wind
4. Limitations 

Wind is the natural movement of air across the land or sea. Wind is caused by uneven heating and cooling of the earth's surface and by the earth's rotation. Land and water areas absorb and release different amount of heat received from the sun. As warm air rises, cooler air rushes in to take its place, causing local winds. The rotation of the earth changes the direction of the flow of air.

Why wind energy?

    The project is environment friendly.

    A permanent shield against ever increasing power prices.

    The  cost per kwh reduces over a period of time as against rising cost for conventional power 

    Project . 

    The cheapest source of electrical energy. (on a levelled cost over 20 years.)

    Least equity participation required, as well as low cost debt is easily available to wind energy 

    projects 

    A project with the fastest payback period.

    A real fast track power project, with the lowest gestation period; and a modular concept.

    Operation and Maintenance (O&M) costs are low.

    No marketing risks, as the product is electrical energy.

    A project with no investment in manpower.

Pollution saving potential of wind energy

The pollution has been estimated as:

1. Sulphur - dioxide (SO₂): 2 to 3.2 tonnes
2. Nitrogen - oxide (NO) ; 1.2 to 2.4 tonnesy
3. Suitable terrain and good soil condition
4. Carbon - dioxide (CO₂) : 300 to 500 tonnes
5. Particulates : 150 to 280 kg. nes
6. Particulates : 150 to 280 kg.

Comparison between Fossil Fuels and Wind

Availability	Usable as it exists	Have to be procured and made usable through laborious and environmentally damaging processes
Limitation on availability	Inexhaustible resource	Limited in reserves, expected to get completely exhausted in the coming 60 years
Transportation	Used where it is available	Have to be transported from the site for further processing exposing environment to danger
Use in production	Zero emission	Used in producing electricity releasing green house gasses

Limitations

• Wind machines must be located where strong, dependable winds are available most of the time.
• Because winds do not blow strongly enough to produce power all the time, energy from wind machines is considered "intermittent," that is, it comes and goes. Therefore, electricity from wind machines must have a back-up supply from another source.
• As wind power is "intermittent," utility companies can use it for only part of their total energy needs.
• Wind towers and turbine blades are subject to damage from high winds and lighting. Rotating parts, which are located high off the ground can be difficult and expensive to repair.
• Electricity produced by wind power sometimes fluctuates in voltage and power factor, which can cause difficulties in linking its power to a utility system.
• The noise made by rotating wind machine blades can be annoying to nearby neighbors.
• People have complained about aesthetics of and avian mortality from wind machines.

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                                       GO WIND A STREAM COUPLE OF ENERGY


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