Are you windy enough to power your own house?

By Bart Forcey

Wind is created by air in motion. It is caused by the uneven heating of the earth's environment by the sun. Because the earth's environment is made of several types of materials such as land and water, as well as the things that make up these surfaces, they absorb the sun's heat at differing rates.

During the day the land obviously heats faster than in the evening, because the sun is out. The water also heats up, but not as fast. Water also cools slower then land so at night the wind reverses course. When the heat rises, the cool air comes in to fill in where the heat is not, and this is when the wind is created.

Nowadays, we use the wind to create energy to produce electricity for homes, businesses or communities. Wind is an earth friendly renewable energy source; we know that as long as the sun shines on the earth the winds will continue to blow.

Much like the old fashioned windmills, the wind machines we use today use blades to collect the wind's energy. Windmills work because they harness the power of the wind to generate electricity. Even the new wind machines must have wind to work, so when the wind isn't blowing other types of power have to be used, like solar panel energy.

There are two types of turbines used today they are based on the direction of the rotating shaft for example; horizontal axis wind machines, and vertical axis wind machines. Sizes of wind machines can vary widely. There are smaller turbines used to power a home or small business, and they may have a capacity of less than 100 kilowatts. Larger commercial sized turbines may have a capacity of 5 million watts, or even as high as 5 megawatts. The large turbines are often found in wind farms that provide power to an electrical grid.

Most turbines used today are the horizontal axis type. The horizontal axis turbines have blades that are made like airplane propellers. A horizontal wind machine will typically stand about as tall as a 20-story building and has three blades that can span as much as 200 feet across. The largest turbines in the world actually have blades that are longer than a football field. Wind Turbines are built to stand tall and wide to capture more wind effectively.

Critics of electric wind power point out that the windmills which are essential to power generation are extremely large and make a lot of noise. Ordinarily, they can only be used in rural areas, where the open spaces and elevated terrain essential for their use can be found. Because of these limitations, they are not usually practical for more densely populated areas. - 20607

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