Wind Power

One of the fastest-growing technologies when it comes to renewable energy is wind power. Ever since the cost of harnessing wind energy dropped, its usage has been on the rise.

Wind turbines have been in existence for over a century. After the invention of electric generators during the 1930s, several engineers have started researching harnessing wind power to produce electricity. The electricity produced by wind power plants is from the kinetic energy created by moving air. Using wind conversion systems or turbines, the kinetic energy from the wind is transformed into electricity.

The process is fairly simple. The turbine spins when the wind hits the blades of the turbines. The wind’s kinetic energy is then converted into rotational energy by moving the shaft, which is attached to a generator that again converts the energy into electricity through electromagnetism.

The amount of energy that can be harnessed from the wind is dependent on the size of the turbine and the length of its blades. The output is directly proportional to the rotor dimensions and the cube of the speed of the wind. In theory, when the speed of the wind is doubled, the potential of wind power is increased by a factor of 8.