Wind Farms

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The Pros and Cons of Wind Turbines

People have been discussing and testing renewable energy sources for many years, the problem is that many people felt that we would never run out of fossil fuels. This made the development of renewable energy sources take a back seat to other concerns. Things have now changed, the world now has to grasp the concept that we have reached our peak oil production and will soon see the end of fossil fuels. This has put the search for viable renewable energy sources in the forefront, and renewable energy wind turbines are one of the main items on the list of energy sources.

Renewable energy make use of the wind in order to create electricity. As the wind turns the blades, the blades spin a turbine inside of the housing. This turbine creates the electricity, which is either added to the electrical grid or stored in storage batteries. It is the same principle as a water turbine except that the turbine is turned by the wind. Wind turbines have a great deal of potential but there are some pros and cons that need to be considered. The first benefit of the wind is that it is renewable, and in many parts of the world plentiful. That is why you see wind farms full of wind turbines showing up in different areas of the world. Another benefit is that wind power is inexpensive, although commercial wind turbines are large and impressive looking they are actually inexpensive to build and maintain. Wind turbines can create massive amounts of electricity if wind farms are placed in the proper area where they can make full use of the available wind. They come in all sizes; there are even models for home use that will generate enough power to run a single-family residence. There are even plans for building homemade wind turbines for those that like to tackle projects on their own.

Those are some of the benefits of renewable wind; let us look at some of the drawbacks. The biggest problem with wind turbines is they need the wind to operate, and it cannot be obstructed. This means the turbines cannot be erected near urban areas where the wind is either blocked or disturbed by large buildings. Commercial turbines are large and take a lot of space in order to operate properly. This means that to power a city, electricity will need to travel over long distances in order to reach populated areas. For the homeowner who would like a personal wind turbine you need to have plenty of open space around your home. You will need to be thirty feet higher than the nearest obstruction, and that obstruction should be at least three hundred feet from your wind turbine. This will leave urban homeowners searching for a power source other than renewable energy wind turbines.

Urban homeowners may need to choose one of the other renewable energy devices such as solar panels or magnetic generators. Many people believe that in the future we will need to make use of various types of renewable energy sources because all of the ones currently available have limitations. Renewable energy depends on an unobstructed wind flow; solar panels depend on many sunny days, geo-thermal devices are still in testing, and many people are sceptical of magnetic generators.

Wind Farm Development On The Rise

It is nearly impossible nowadays to open a newspaper, turn on a television set or radio without encountering at least one story about the shortage of fossil fuels (such as coal, oil and natural gas) and the ever-increasing need for the development of alternative energy sources. The most popular forms of renewable energy are Hydro Electric Power (also known as Tidal Power), Biofuel/Biodiesel and Solar Energy. However, the most obvious indicator of the increased drive for renewable energy sources is the growing number of wind turbines and the growing number of wind farms.

The advantages of renewable energy sources do not just rest with the fact that the already limited supplies of fossil fuels will otherwise be depleted at an even greater speed. Global Warming is another key reason why projects such as Wind Farm Development has attracted an increased level of interest and funding. We are taught that the use of traditional fossil fuels (such as coal and natural gas), becoming increasingly used to power the machines developed during the Industrial Revolution, only exaggerated the problem now facing our environment. This is because the combustion of such fuels resulted in very high levels of carbon dioxide were released into the atmosphere, demonstrating the need for the development of a source of energy which will not be depleted and will not damage the environment.  

 This determination by nations and their governments around the world to finding such environmentally friendly and renewable energy sources is shown by the fact that many nations have issued targets dictating how much of future energy production is to be made up of renewable sources. For example, the British Government issued the target dictating that by the year 2020, 15% of the energy requirements of the United Kingdom is to be fulfilled by various forms of renewable energy.

Although these targets may appear to be very optimistic, the fact that many people are utilising renewable forms of energy themselves (as well as investing in Wind Farm Development), means that there is no reason why such aims cannot be achieved. These domestic forms of renewable energy production most commonly take the form of solar panels (absorbing sunlight and converting it to electricity) and wind turbines (which effectively work in the opposite way to a fan in that electricity is generated as it rotates). However, there are also an increasing number of privately owned energy firms which specialise in the production of electricity from renewable sources and the provision of such energy to households.

What Is All They Hype About Wind Turbines?

It has been well advertised in the media and repeatedly highlighted in the modern day school curriculum that renewable energy sources (such as tidal power, hydro electric power and especially solar and wind power) will play an increasingly large role in the production of electricity. The most notable feature of the renewable energy ‘revolution’ is the construction of Wind Turbines. Wind Turbines are used for the purposes of converting kinetic energy (from the wind turning the rotor blades) into mechanical energy which is then used for the purpose of generating electricity. Modern day wind turbines come in a wide range of styles with the smallest forms being used for minor purposes such as fuelling the auxiliary power used to drive sailing boats as well as for charging batteries. The larger forms of turbine on the other hand are often connected in a grid and over the past few years have become increasingly used for the purpose of generating large amounts of power in the commercial sector.

The modern forms of wind turbines that are most commonly used in wind farms for the production of electricity in the commercial sector usually have three blades (which are normally coloured light grey so as to match and fit in with the colour of clouds) and are pointed so as to face the direction of oncoming wind by computer controlled motors. Such turbines can operate at a very high efficiency and low torque ripple (making them more reliable) as well as having the potential to reach a top speed of over 320 km per hour (over 200 mph).

There is a range of formats which Wind Turbines appear in, the most common forms being the those that rotate around a vertical axis and those that rotate around a horizontal axis (which is a more common design of the older models). These Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines (HAWTs) are made up of a main rotor shaft and an electrical generator placed at the top of the turbine which must be pointed to face into the wind. Smaller wind turbines on the other hand are pointed by a simple wind vane whereas the much larger models use a combination of a combination of a server motor and a wind sensor. One common feature amongst nearly all forms of wind turbines is the use of a gearbox. This is used to turn the (normally slow moving) rotor blades so that they turn even faster, making them more suitable for driving an electrical generator and producing electricity for the commercial sector.