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The Internet has many places to ask questions about anything imaginable and find past answers on almost everything.
A wind turbine consists of five major and many auxiliary parts. The major parts are the tower, rotor, nacelle, generator, and foundation or base.
The generator in a wind turbine produces alternating current (AC) electricity. Some turbines drive an AC/AC converter—which converts the AC to direct current (DC) with a rectifier and then back to AC with an inverter—in order to match the frequency and phase of the grid.
Four parts, however, are vital: The generator, nacelle, tower and blades.
Various Disadvantages of Wind Energy
Wind turbine blades rotate when hit by the wind. And this doesn’t have to be a strong wind, either: the blades of most turbines will start turning at a wind speed of 3-5 meters per second, which is a gentle breeze.
Generally, annual average wind speeds greater than four meters per second (m/s) (9 mph) are required for small wind electric turbines (less wind is required for water-pumping operations). Utility-scale wind power plants require minimum average wind speeds of 6 m/s (13 mph).
In addition to wind turbines, a wind farm requires an electrical power collection system, transformers, a communications network, and substations. What’s more, a supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) information system is used to monitor performance.
Worldwide Installed Capacity
Country | Total Capacity, end of 2014 (MW) | Total Capacity, June 2010 (MW) |
---|---|---|
U.S. | 65,900 | 36,300 |
China | 114,600 | 33,800 |
Germany | 40,000 | 26,400 |
Spain | 23,000 | 19,500 |
1 Wind is harvested through wind turbines, which generate electricity by converting the kinetic energy of the wind into mechanical energy. How is Wind Energy Harvested? Today’s wind-harvesting technology includes blades connected to a rotor, a gear box, a braking system, a turbine, and a generator.
Wind is a major factor in determining weather and climate. Wind carries heat, moisture, pollutants, and pollen to new areas. Warm air above the land rises, and cooler air above the water moves in over the land, creating an inland breeze. Coastal communities are usually much cooler than their inland neighbors.
Wind energy is considered to be sustainable from an environmental point of view, where sustainable is defined as meeting society’s current needs without harming future generations [1]. Wind energy is clean and renewable. Because the fuel is free it provides the ultimate in energy independence.
Some of these uses might even come as a surprise to you.
Winds are commonly classified by their spatial scale, their speed, the types of forces that cause them, the regions in which they occur, and their effect. The strongest observed winds on a planet in the Solar System occur on Neptune and Saturn.
Wind blowing above the earth surface may be classified into five major types:
They are also known as prevailing winds or planetary winds. They are of three types-trade winds, westerlies and polar winds. Periodic Winds: Periodic winds, or seasonal winds, are those that blow without fail at a certain time of the year or day.
The Loo (Hindi: लू ) is a strong, dusty, gusty, hot and dry summer wind from the west which blows over the western Indo-Gangetic Plain region of North India and Pakistan. It is especially strong in the months of May and June.
Modern scale
Beaufort number | Description | Wind speed |
---|---|---|
6 | Strong breeze | 10.8–13.8 m/s |
7 | High wind, moderate gale, near gale | 28–33 knots |
32–38 mph | ||
50–61 km/h |
Short bursts of high-speed wind are termed gusts. Strong winds of intermediate duration (around one minute) are termed squalls. Long-duration winds have various names associated with their average strength, such as breeze, gale, storm, and hurricane.
Dry wind is a part of a greater natural phenomenon—drought. Typically dry winds occur in the arid temperate regions. The criterion of dry wind is a combination of air temperature, relative humidity and wind velocity. Dry winds cause damage to agriculture in arid areas.