Wind turbine

Renewable Energy

Renewable resources are those that never run out or can regenerate infinitely, without
being depleted. Typically, any energy that relies on solar radiation or moving water is
inherently renewable.

 Fossil fuels like natural gas, coal, and oil are examples of nonrenewable
resources. Nuclear power is also nonrenewable, although unlike fossil fuels, it is
carbon dioxide-free.
 Renewable energy include wind energy, solar energy, hydropower, and
geothermal energy.

Is Wind Renewable or Nonrenewable?

Wind power is a renewable energy source. These forms of clean energy are crucial in the
fight against climate change and global warming caused by excess carbon dioxide
emissions.
Wind is a form of solar energy caused by a combination of three concurrent events:
1. The sun unevenly heating the atmosphere
2. Irregularities of the earth's surface
3. The rotation of the earth.
What is a wind turbine?

Wind turbines work on a simple principle: instead of using electricity to make wind—like a fan
—wind turbines use wind to make electricity. Wind turns the propeller-like blades of a turbine
around a rotor, which spins a generator, which creates electricity.

The terms "wind energy" and "wind power" both describe the process by which the wind is used
to generate mechanical power or electricity.

This mechanical power (wind mills) can be used for specific tasks (such as grinding grain or
pumping water) or a generator can convert this mechanical power into electricity (wind turbine).
History of wind turbine
It’s easy to think that clean, renewable energy is a relatively recent innovation, but the fact is that
renewables have been used as a source of power for centuries.
Since the earliest recorded history, there has been documentation of people using wind energy.
Some of the earliest adopters were the ancient Egyptians who used the wind to propel boats
along the Nile River as far back at 5,000 B.C. Between 500 – 900 B.C., Persians used wind-
powered mills to pump water and grain.
Types of Wind Turbines
I. The majority of wind turbines fall into two basic types based on their axis of rotation:
HORIZONTAL-AXIS WIND TURBINES
Horizontal-axis wind turbines are what many people picture when thinking of wind
turbines.
Most commonly, they have three blades and operate "upwind," with the turbine pivoting
at the top of the tower so the blades face into the wind. This type of wind turbines have
horizontal axis of rotation. The direction of the air flow is very critical and there must be
a system to align the axis of rotation with the air flow.

VERTICAL-AXIS WIND TURBINES

Vertical-axis wind turbines come in several varieties, including the eggbeater-style
Darrius model, named after its French inventor. This type of turbine have vertical axis of
rotation.
These turbines are omnidirectional, meaning they don’t need to be adjusted to point into
the wind to operate.
 II. Wind turbines can also be classified by their operational principle;

Drag-based wind turbine

In drag-based wind turbines, the force of the wind pushes against a surface, like an open
sail. In fact, the earliest wind turbines, dating back to ancient Persia, used this approach.
The Savonius rotor is a simple drag-based windmill that you can make at home. It works
because the drag of the open, or concave, face of the cylinder is greater than the drag on
the closed or convex section.

Airfoil (Lift) type wind turbine

A wind turbine that turns wind energy into electricity using the aerodynamic force from
the rotor blades, which work like an airplane wing. When wind flows across the blade,
the air pressure on one side of the blade decreases. The difference in air pressure across
the two sides of the blade creates both lift and drag. The force of the lift is stronger than
the drag and this causes the rotor to spin.

More energy can be extracted from wind using lift rather than drag, but this requires
specially shaped airfoil surfaces. Rotors of this type must be carefully oriented (the
orientation is referred to as the rotor pitch), to maintain their ability to harness the power
of the wind as wind speed changes.
Component of a wind turbine
These are the basic component a wind turbine needs to achieve its function.
1. Rotor blade 3. Generator
2. Gearbox 4. Support (tower)
Applications of Wind Turbines
Modern wind turbines can be categorized by where they are installed and how they are
connected to the grid:

1. LAND-BASED WIND
Land-based wind turbines range in size from 100 kilowatts to as large as several
megawatts.
Larger wind turbines are more cost effective and are grouped together into wind plants,
which provide bulk power to the electrical grid.

2. OFFSHORE WIND
Offshore wind turbines tend to be massive. They do not have the same transportation
challenges of land-based wind installations, as the large components can be transported
on ships instead of on roads. These turbines are able to capture powerful ocean winds and
generate vast amounts of energy.
How big are wind turbines?

When it comes to wind turbines, bigger is definitely better. The bigger the radius of the
rotor blades (or diameter of the “rotor disc”), the more wind the blades can use to turn
into torque that drives the electrical generators in the hub. More torque means more
power. Increasing the diameter means that not only more power can be extracted, but it
can be done so more efficiently.

Wind turbines are also growing taller because of the way wind travels around the world.
Because air is viscous (like very thin honey) and “sticks” to the ground, the wind velocity
at higher altitudes can be many times higher than at ground level.
So just how noisy are these turbines?
Because wind turbines are such a great source of clean, renewable energy, they’re usually
greeted with a great deal of enthusiasm. But some complaints have been made that they can
cause too much noise for residents living within a mile of the blades.
The closest that a wind turbine is typically placed to a home is 300 meters or more. For a
complete run down of louder-than-a-fridge but quieter-than-a-blender context points, check out
the graph above.

I. When the wind blows too much

Top 3 Types of Wind Turbine Failure
1. Blade Failure
 2. Generator Failure

3. Gearbox Failure

Preventive maintenance is one way to reduce the chance of failures in a wind turbine and extend their
lifetimes. Monitoring temperatures, vibration signatures, and structural integrity of components help to
anticipate possible failures.

II. When the wind doesn’t blow…

Do fossil-fired generating units have to be kept running on a standby basis in case the
wind dies down?
No. Wind speeds rise and fall gradually and the system operator has time to move other plants on
and off line as needed.

THE PROS AND CONS OF WIND ENERGY

PRO: IT’S GREEN
Wind energy is known as a green energy source. That’s because it doesn’t pollute the environment
in the way that fossil fuels, nuclear power, and coal do. While it is true that the process to build a
wind turbine has a slight impact on the environment, the impact is minuscule in comparison to that
caused by dirty energy sources and far counterbalanced by the environmental effect of using green
energy over dirty.

PRO: IT HAS HUGE POTENTIAL

The potential of wind energy is enormous. Harnessing wind energy can be done from anywhere
there is wind, and if humans keep creating better and more efficient ways to produce energy from
the wind, then the sky is literally the limit for what we can do with wind energy!

PRO: IT’S RENEWABLE

Renewable energy will never go away. You will simply never run out of wind energy because it
renews itself. As long as the sun shines and the wind blows, humans can collect the energy from it.
This is certainly not the case for oil, coal, and other fossil fuels.

PRO: IT USES SPACE EFFICIENTLY

The largest wind turbines in use today can generate enough energy to meet the demand of 600
average homes in the United States. And since they’re built up, they’re far more space efficient for
the amount of energy they produce when compared to other renewable sources.

CON: IT’S UNPREDICTABLE

The availability of wind energy isn’t constant because the wind is simply unpredictable. So, that
means that wind energy all by itself is not very well suited to be the only source of energy provided.
One day, however, energy storage techniques could change this con so that we’re able to rely on
wind energy.

CON: RISK TO WILDLIFE

Flying creatures such as birds and bats have had some unfortunate run-ins with the rotating blades
of wind turbines, but the number of flying animal deaths from wind turbines is actually quite small.
Collisions with buildings kill far more birds every year—about 976 million.

CON: APPEARANCE
Not everyone likes the way that wind turbines look. But they actually have a smaller footprint than a
majority of other sources of energy such as solar panels or nuclear power facilities. The visual
problem is mitigated by simply placing wind turbines outside of urban areas.

There are pros and cons to every type of energy available, but weighing these pros and cons carefully
with the good done by the energy produced is important. Wind energy is a great renewable energy source
that is being utilized more and more each day, and, with improved technology, will become even more
ubiquitous.