All types of matter have energy. They can either be kinetic energy or potential energy. Anything that involves motion is considered as kinetic energy. Moving solid objects have kinetic energy. Water in a stream has kinetic energy. It may be difficult to imagine but even moving air or wind has kinetic energy. This said, any form of kinetic energy has the potential to be transformed into usable energy.

Many alternative forms of energy sources have taken advantage of this. Geothermal energy, hydroelectric energy and even wind energy serves as a great option especially in today’s rising fuel prices.

It is easy to determine how wind power works. You can just imagine the setup of a hydroelectric dam and its large turbines garnering the force of water. In the case of wind, turbines are used to capture the heat of the wind through its constant rotation. When the energy has been capture, it is then transferred into a generator, which stores and transforms energy into functional electricity. This is done through the rotor inside the generator spinning in loops of copper wire and iron core. The spinning ultimately achieves electromagnetic induction.

The Creation of Wind

Why does wind have a force strong enough to be harnessed, you may ask? Well, to further understand how wind power works, one needs to understand how wind is generated. Wind is created through the combination of hot air and cool air. Hot air is generated when the heat of the sun hits the land. Some of its heat is transferred in the air. As the hot air rises quickly because it is lighter than cool air, the cool air in turn tries to compensate for the air lost by filling in the gap. The attempt to fill the gap is what generates the wind. It is not a misconception to say then that wind power is actually a form of solar energy.

When a wind is strong enough, it can cause objects to move the same way it allows clothes in a clothesline to move. The blockage (in this case, the turbines) can capture some of its energy.

Turbine Design

It would also be incomplete to discuss how wind power works without discussing the importance of turbine design. The tilt of the windmill is designed in such a way that even light wind allows it to rotate. It is important to note though that continuous strong winds are needed in order to create functional electricity. There are vertical-axis turbines but the most common are the horizontal axis-turbines, which look like typical windmills.

How Wind Power Works in Wind Turbines

The size of the turbine is the determinant of the output of electricity the turbine generates. Hence, the bigger the turbine, the more energy it can generate. Most household turbines are usually sized at 8 feet and can generate an average of 6 kilowatts

It is especially important in today’s depleting fossil fuels that transition between unrenewable to renewable energy be hastened. In this case, it is important to note how wind power works because it stands for 10% of how the world garners energy today. This is bound to rise more in the coming years.

Wind energy is an environmentally inert, clean, and inexhaustible source of electric power that, as it turns out, is really just another form of solar energy. The sun creates wind by its uneven heating of the planet’s atmosphere. It’s moderated by the earth’s rotation and irregularities in its surface. The planet’s terrain, water bodies, and vegetation then affect the wind flow patterns. With the invention of wind turbines, we can now harness the wind’s energy and use it instead of purchasing electricity from the utility companies that are derived from non-renewable sources.

The easiest way to understand how wind turbines work is to think of a fan operating in reverse – rather than electricity spinning the blades and thus generating wind, the wind spins the blades, thereby generating electricity.

Breaking it down to it’s simplest components, a wind turbine operates as follows:

the wind turns the blades

the blades spin a shaft

the shaft connects to a generator

the generator produces electricity

To expand on that simplification, the turbine’s blades are connected to a hub that’s mounted atop a turning shaft which runs into a gear transmission box that increases the turning speed which, in turn, is connected to a high speed shaft that cranks the generator. If the wind speeds get too high, a brake is deployed to slow the blades down and prevent damage being done to the system.

There are two basic types of wind turbine:

horizontal axis wind turbines: the kind most commonly in use today and the focus of U.S.

Department of Energy research on wind power, these come in two varieties -

2-blade horizontal axis turbines spin downwind

3-blade horizontal axis turbines spin upwind

vertical axis wind turbines

The size of a wind turbine will influence its power generating capacity, with the smaller windmills that produce under 50 kilowatts being the type most commonly used to power water pumps, telecom dishes, and homes.

In an innovative advancement known as hybrid wind systems, these smaller turbines are also being used in combination with solar (photovoltaic) systems, rechargeable deep-cycle batteries, and diesel generators to provide storable, on-demand power in more remote, off-the-grid places.

In most residential situations, a wind turbine is used as a supplemental source of power in combination with local, on-the-grid, utility power. There is something called a cut-in speed (7-10 miles per hour), below which the wind turbine will cease to provide an output, and the utility grid provides the structure’s power. Above the cut-in speed, the wind turbine kicks in and the grid power supply is proportionately reduced (depending on the structure’s energy draw at the given moment).

If the output produced by the wind turbine exceeds the draw from the structure (and/or storage devices, like batteries), the excess power is then sold back to the pubic utility company. Use of wind energy can reduce a residence’s energy costs by, on average, 50-90%, though these numbers are influenced by a variety of factors and, as such, can fluctuate greatly.

In a typical residence that uses under 10,000 kilowatt hours per year of electric power, a 5-15 kilowatt wind turbine should more than suffice. This type of system can run anywhere from $6,000-$22,000 to install, depending on a variety of factors, including: its size, your intended application, and any service contracts entered into with the manufacturer.

Being that certain situations (such as in the city) make personal wind power use an unviable option, a general rule of thumb is to consider installing your own wind power system if and only if you pay at least 10 cents per kilowatt hour and your location’s average wind speeds exceed 10 miles per hour.

The larger wind turbines have capacities upwards of 50 kilowatts, running these days into the several-megawatt range. These windmills, known as utility scale turbines, can be grouped together and connected to central lines for transmitting and distributing in bulk to the local utility grids that, in turn, sell that power to homes and businesses across the land. These are called wind power plants or wind farms.

Offshore wind power is when there are wind farms installed in a body of water instead of on land and these wind farms create power or electricity. Offshore wind power is not just about being in an ocean, offshore wind power can also be in lakes, coastal areas, as well as fixed bottom wind turbines, of course there are also deep water wind turbines as well, considered floating wind turbines.

Offshore wind turbines have different structures that depend on the needed stability and how deep the water is too. There are multiple solutions for this in the way of structures and these include:

There is the single column style that is six meters in diameter and goes into water that is no more than 30 meters deep, known as monopole turbines.
There are also bases that go into water that is 20 meters to no more than 80 meters deep, known as gravity base structures.
Another 20 meters to 80 meters deep structure is the tripod piled structure and there is also the tripod suction caisson structure too for water this deep.
Structures used by gas and oil companies, called conventional steel jacket structures used in 20 meters to 80 meter deep water also.
There are also floating wind turbines for water deeper than 80 meters.

Offshore wind turbines are less accessible than onshore turbines. This means that reliability is a legitimate concern when considering the offshore turbines. There are groups that take care of these offshore turbines and they can only be accessed by vessel or helicopter to get there. However, some of the offshore turbines have living quarters on the site for around the clock maintenance needs.

power can greatly reduce the need for traditional electricity and is much cheaper to produce as well. It is a renewable resource that costs very little once the structures are in place and they can power entire communities, businesses and other structures in an area. This type of power also reduces air pollution, greenhouse gases and limits the use of fossil fuels. They leave little to no environmental impact when they are in place and they do not disrupt water life in the same way as oil drilling and oil spills do.

The other benefit of offshore wind power is that the turbines are not as obvious and obtrusive as land turbines. Although land turbines do allow for farming around them and leave very little to no impact on the environment, offshore turbines do not seem as large and noise levels are not a concern due to distance. Depending on where the placement in the body of water, again fishing and boating is not interrupted, as well as marine life is not affected as well.

The higher the costs of fuel go, the more urgent the search for alternative energy becomes. Wind energy is one such source, and the public eye has settled on the efficiency of wind farms. The provision of energy from wind is a clean process, and of course wind is an inexhaustible source of power. Solar energy is the genuine source of wind power, since wind is produced by variations in ground temperature and the ground is heated by the sun. The wind is then channeled to create electrical energy.

A lot of countries are nowadays employing wind farms as a means to completely use what power can be produced by the wind. Working like propeller blades but in reverse, the power of the wind is gathered by the big blades of many wind turbines that have been set up in a suitably windy location. These farms are able to generate electricity in huge amounts, when the wind turbines work in concert. A familiarity of the principles involved in wind farms will exhibit their possible effectiveness. The blades are fixed on a shaft, and when the wind blows, it turns the blades and hence the shaft. The turning of the shaft cranks a generator from which action electrical energy then results. Using the power inherent in the flow of water rather than wind, hydropower is made in the same fashion.

Adequate energy for a town or bigger area requires a lot of turbines, because one is barely enough for a house or little farm. The large energy yield possible from a wind farm is based on the collective capability of several turbines grouped together. The electricity produced is sufficient for running an entire town when you store it on an existing utility grid or in special large-scale battery cells. Today wind turbines are so sophisticated that they can utilize wind coming from any direction, even when it is from inconsistent, variable angles.

Larger turbine blades and taller turbines also make for enhanced efficiency. Since there are numerous factors that must be analyzed, it is hard to determine the exact efficiency of wind turbines. There is no constant, when it comes to wind farms, because they vary so much in terrain, size of turbines, and the amount of wind. However, the typical turbine converts approximately 20% of the power in wind to electrical energy. When the wind is blowing between 5 and 20 mils per hour, that is when the production is the most economic.

Wind power that has an efficiency rating of twenty percent is higher than solar by five to seven percent, but solar is much more constant than wind. Wind technology is coming along, and when put side by side with other renewable energy sources, it is favorable. Amongst alternative energy sources it has become important, but has not yet found universal favour. Among the leading nations in the use of wind power is Germany.

There are a number of renewable energy sources. Wind power, however, is one of the most practical renewable energy sources available to the average person. You don’t need a great deal of space to house a windmill or wind turbine, and many locations receive enough wind to convert into electricity by way of a wind turbine each month to power their homes indefinitely.

In this article I’m going to talk about renewable energy sources – wind power.

Wind turbines work using kinetic energy. The wind powers and moves the turbine which generates kinetic energy which is transformed into actual usable electricity which is every bit as good as that which ye receive from the power company.

In the past, of all of the practical renewable energy sources wind was one of the most expensive to harness as turbines were expensive to have built and installed professionally. While it still expensive to have these tools professionally built and installed, costing you anywhere from $5,000-$10,000 to have a professional grade wind turbine installed, nowadays anyone can build their own wind turbines on a budget using everyday household materials.

Through building your own wind turbine, you can generate more than enough electricity to power your home in full each and every month. Many people generate more than it takes to power their homes every month and for every bit of electricity which you generate but don’t consume, you can actually make money on it because the power company pays you back for that energy as it gets dispersed through other homes in your area.

The government actually subsidizes power companies to do this every day because power generated at home by everyday people is just as good as that which you receive from the power company, but it saves the government and power company a lot of money overall because less artificial energy is needed to be produced.

Many people generate a supplemental four or five figure income each year by generating wind power alone. The great thing about harnessing wind energy is that it’s completely no maintenance income. Once the wind turbine is set up and in place, you’re generating that electricity automatically and receiving the income which it generates for you for life.

People who live in especially windier environments such as along the coast or in the Midwest generate even more electricity and make even more money for themselves.

Wind Energy is converted into electricity at home by making use of wind turbines. It is not that hard to construct a home made wind turbine. This homemade wind power helps us reduce our energy bills. There are a few tools that are required to build the wind turbines. These tools can be purchased from the market. The electricity can be used for all the electrical appliances, farms and other industries.

Wind energy does not produce air pollution. You can save the planet by generating wind power at home to make use of it for domestic purposes. We must not mount the wind turbine on the roof. This is because the winds near the roof are very slow and so the power generated is reduced. The home made windmills can be placed on an open land where there is maximum flow of wind. The pole must be fixed firmly on the ground to withstand strong winds.

To generate homemade wind power, a wind turbine must be setup which should have blades, a pole, a hub to hold the blades and a motor. The blades are actually used to catch the wind. The blades must be fixed with equal space on the hub. The blades are fixed in such a way so that more amount of wind is captured. They are mostly made from PVC pipes. The hub will connect all the blades. The blades must be cut such that they are of equal size.

The electric motor converts the wind energy drawn by blades to electricity. The tower or pole acts as the supporting element. It has to be fixed firmly on the ground. Finally Wires are used to connect all the devices to establish connectivity. The motor is connected to a battery to store excess electricity. Then finally the direct current is converted into alternating current and is made use at home.

You can check out whether the electricity is being generated with the help of the ammeter. You can either use the simple ammeter which is quiet cheap or you can buy the multimeter and then use it for ever. I would really appreciate the use of the multimeter. Homemade wind power is easy to generate. Initially it might be little difficult to construct the windmill but it gives a lot of motivation to you to generate power for your own use at home.