Wind Farm Efficiency

Wind power is an incredibly clean renewable power source. To capture the energy in wind, wind farms are used. So, how about wind farm efficiency?

Wind Farm Efficiency

Wind power is the process by which wind is used to generate power or electricity. The power of the wind is actually a form of solar power – wind change and variability is caused by uneven heating of the ground by the sun. In order to fully use the power that the wind is capable of generating, many countries have set up wind farms. In a wind farm, many different wind turbines (a structure that uses a propeller-like blade to take in the wind's power) are set up in an area. With all the wind turbines working at the same time, it's thought that these farms are a great way to produce large amounts of electricity.

To determine the efficiency of wind farms, you need to know how a wind farm works. The wind turbines collect the power of the wind in two steps: the propeller blades are turned by the gusts of wind, and the propeller then turns a shaft. This turning shaft is connected to a generator. The spinning action cranks the generator, which then produces electricity. The process is exactly like hydropower, but with wind acting as the energy source instead of flowing water. Just one wind turbine set up in an area will not produce very much electricity, and is not very good for powering large areas - these small turbines are usually used to power just one farm or house or occasionally to pump water.

Wind farms, on the other hand, are more powerful because there is a large grouping of the wind turbines in one area, all working in unison to produce electricity. The energy can then be run to whole communities through existing utility grids or stored in battery-like storage cells. Wind turbines can be set up to face the wind or face away from the wind. Modern wind turbines can also turn to catch the wind as it gusts from different angles, a factor which makes them far more efficient than before. The larger the turbine's blades and the taller the turbine's height will increase the efficiency as well.

The exact efficiency of wind farms is nearly impossible to pinpoint. The problem is found in the factors that go into the analysis. The terrain, amount of wind, size of turbines and so on varies from wind farm to farm. There is no constant, which makes it difficult to nail down general efficiency ratings. In general, a single wind turbine will convert about 20 percent of the energy in wind to electricity. The most efficient production occurs between five and 20 miles an hour of wind speed. This general 20 percent efficiency rating is roughly seven to five percent more efficient than solar power, but sunlight is constant whereas wind is not.

While wind technology has not yet progressed to a point where no energy is lost while harnessing it, it is fair to say that the platform is favorable compared to other renewable sources. It may take a while for the whole world to catch on to using the power of the wind, but it's definitely fast becoming an important alternative energy source. Countries such as Germany are certainly investing a lot into the platform.

Rick Chapo is with SolarCompanies.com. Visit us for more wind farm articles.

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Wind Turbine Blade Design - Designing Wind Turbine Blades

When we decided to build a wind generator we figured that the wind turbine blade design would be the hardest part to figure out. When we looked at the design of modern manufactured wind machines the blades looked like they had been designed by computer programs and cut out with some very expensive manufacturing machinery. How could we learn wind turbine blade design for ourselves?

First we had to look at our objectives.

- Simple system for making blades

- Consistent wind turbine blade design

- Find materials that were inexpensive

- Design blades quickly every time

The first hurdle was to decide what kind of materials would work best and then figure out a design. We wanted to use readily available materials that could be quickly obtained. The search lead us to an interesting source in PVC pipe. Our good friend Paul had told us of this resource that he read telling him that PVC pipe; big pipe could be used for blades.

We studied the material that he sent us and agreed that we should be able to find good blade material in large sewer pipe used for industrial purposes. Paul even showed us where we could get the material for free.

It worked well except that cutting the pipe was difficult because it would cut and then melt back together. We solved the problem by using a large tooth wooden blade in our jigsaw.

The wind turbine blade design proceeded smoothly with us cutting the pipe on the angle that was indicated in the plans. It is offset slightly because the wind pressure on the outside tips of the blades is much greater than the pressure near the hub. The angle of the blade has to compensate for this fact by being turned slightly more at the tip. It really isn't that difficult to lay out.

We wanted to explore all possibilities of materials so we went back and studied some old articles and books finding some interesting information first published by Marcellus Jacobs of the Jacobs Wind Company. Mr. Jacobs first made wind generators commercially in the 1930's and continued for some 20+ years until Rural Electrification Program put an end to demand for rural wind generators.

He used wood for his blades and they were cut from a single piece of wood. We figured to try this and it worked well too according to the plans to build a wind generator we had found. The blades are easily made and set on an angle to catch the wind effectively.

Do you want more information? The following website should be able to help you with all of your questions.

A Wind Turbine Blade Design website has helped us and it will help you too. Just check out the link to the left. Wind turbine blade design follows just a few easy patterns and is not that difficult. You may not end up with a perfectly engineered blade but your wind generator will function very well. So don't let building your own blades stop you from learning how to build a wind generator.

Our family has been living off the grid since last year, and loving every minute of it. Learning how to build a wind generator was one of the most important solutions to the problems of off grid living we faced and learning wind turbine blade design was not as difficult as it first appeared.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Bill_Temple

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The Revolution of Wind Power

Although the study and implementation of wind power is not a novice idea, it does seem to be a widespread deal lately. One look at a renewable energy news resource shows numerous pages of stories specifically on the topic of wind power. The purpose of today's post is to take a look at the news stories of one day, today, and give briefings on each.

In the Telegraph & Argus, a story regarding a charity and a wind turbine unfolds. The plan, the construction of a 15 meter wind turbine that was to provide power to a center for disadvantaged youth, has been rebuffed, however, by the planning panel of Bradford Council. The concern of the residents who opposed the new technology was the increased air flow that would be created in the area in which the turbine was to be placed. A new proposal will likely be created that involves moving the turbine to the opposite end of the center.

How do wind turbines affect wildlife? That is the question that Keith DeWitt Lott, a wildlife biologist, hopes to answer through his latest research. Although Cleveland, Ohio is interested in the positive effects that wind-based energy can bring to the city, they desire to go about it in an environmentally responsible way. This news story was reported at Cleveland.com.

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review provided a short clip on the considerations the city's council currently has regarding using the high wind level in Green Tree Park to provide power to the park. A wind turbine may be put in the park to help offset some of the costs the city incurs through leaving the lights on throughout the night.

The Bourne Carrier in Massachusetts reports the possibility of a wind turbine being constructed off Taylor's Point. Three agencies, the Bourne Recreation Authority, Massachusetts Maritime Academy (MMA) and Army Corps of Engineers, are seeking more ways to reduce their energy expenses and it is their hope to locate this alternative energy facility near the academy dock. This turbine would also aid in the Corps lowering its canal operation expenses. In addition to the wind turbines, Massachusetts Maritime Academy is also considering thermal panels on dorms and a hydro-electric facility.

With every new idea come those who advocate it and those who oppose it. The latter of these two extremes, opposition, is what is being seen in Maryland over a wind farm proposal. Seven hundred residents arrived at hearings regarding this proposal with the intent of protesting the plans. These individuals share the frustration of having an otherwise faultless landscape (including forest, lakes and mountain views) being interrupted by the wind farm's transmission lines webbing through the backdrop. The threat to tourism is also a concern for some of the residents. In response to the amazing opposition being voiced at the hearings, the commissioners of Garret Country voted unanimously against the wind farm proposal.

Above is a small selection of five new stories being reported on today. This illustrates to some extent, however, the magnitude of wind power in the news, as well as a selection of stories accounting the advocating and opposition of this green energy source.

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Wind Turbine Generators Makers and Environmentalists Are in Denial Over the Bird Kill Statistics

Not long ago a gentleman emailed me about an article I had written a year or so ago over the issues of bird kills and wind generators. He felt it was wrong for me to write the article, because there are billions of birds in the world and a few lost to wind turbines is no big deal. Apparently, he felt that the alternative or renewable energy was more important to mankind that a few dead birds. He sent in this condemnation:

"I'm sure you're a nice guy, really. Perhaps we could get the stats on your "car wash bird kills". Maybe you could provide the nets for my wind generators, possibly defraying from the needless killing of unwanted birds and costs of new blades. Do you actually know how many birds are in the world? Your article was vague at best and no real numbers revealed. Only "kill more birds than the Santa Barbara, CA mini-oil spill". Wow! An epiphany! Intelligence at its best.

Perhaps you could put aside the entire ego boosting, character builder, comments from friends and family members and actually write something that makes sense. Maybe even something tangible that would give us faith in higher education or the benefits of renewable energy. I'm dumber for having read your article, not being that smart to begin with. Must have been a timeline issue."

Hmm, interesting the amount of verbal attacks from folks in denial of reality, so if you are wondering how come the world is becoming so politically correct, it's because folks are afraid to speak out, because someone might give them a hard time. And, the complainer was right on one account; Yes, I suppose I am a nice guy although that is not necessarily relevant to the "bird kill" issues of wind-turbines.

And mind you I am not an environmentalist at all, I just like to point out the hypocrisy in all of this. The environmentalists sue developers on behalf of animals, insects, endangered species, but when it comes to something they support they look the other way? Ah the perfection of hypocrisy, I love it. The truth of the matter is that we can design better wind turbine blades with less drag, and much more efficient. Thus, perhaps needing much less of relative wind-speed to be worthy and we can do it in a way that does not kill birds, everyone wins. Instead, the politically correct environmentalists attack and then turn the other way when the law of unintended consequences strikes one of their wind turbine blades.

With his joking around about car washes, it appears he has learned that I was once in the car wash business and birds, yep, any waste-water runoff would indeed hurt the eco-system (birds too). Actually, when the Federal Clean Water Act was instituted in 1972 the environmentalists stated that 1,000s of birds died in Santa Barbara from an offshore oil spill. But then the number was dropped to 163, then down to about a third of that. Amazingly enough, Nixon, decided to move on the Federal Clean Water act for media generating purposes and PR back then. It worked for him.

In the defense of the critic of my article, he is correct in that perhaps the article did not state how many birds were killed, because it varies, Crows seem to be able to learn quickly and stay away from them, but the migrating birds often do not. I know because our company had cleaning contracts to clean the wind generators and we always saw dead birds underneath them. Like, I said, I am not an environmentalist. The number of birds always varied sometimes 3-4, sometimes 1-2, and occasionally, a whole bunch. Oh well, there are lots of birds out there in the California Desert was always my thinking on it.

Of course, in 2005 the USA Today did a story claiming that 10s of 1000s of brids each year were killed by wind turbines, so, it has become apparent that the Wind Turbine environmentalists want to have their cake and kill the birds too. And, is it really fair to attack the messenger of information, especially considering that I written probably 500 or more articles on environmental causes, everything from Ocean Dead Zones, Exhaust schemes, Solar, wind, recycling, you name it. Well, in any case this is just another example of environmental hypocrisy and how all this hot air is really for the birds.

"Lance Winslow" - Online Blog Content Service. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lance_Winslow

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Green history: Windfarms presentation used to raise $150 million dollars for wind energy development in 1982

This very interesting presentation was used in the 1980's to support wind farms as a new resource for wind energy.



This presentation is shocking and give some ideas about the past and future of wind farms in the united states. Wind power is one of the most important alternative green energy resource.

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Wind Power as a Viable Solution to Alternative Energy Needs

Warren Peters

Although it is much less expensive to initially get hooked into the local electric company's grid than it is to set up and hook into wind turbines, in the long run one saves money by utilizing the wind for one's energy needs while also becoming more independent. Not receiving an electric bill while enjoying the advantages of the modern electrically-driven lifestyle is a wondrous feeling.

Electric bills and fuel bills are rising steadily but the cost of wind turbine energy is zero, and the cost of installing and hooking up a turbine is steadily coming down as demand rises and more commercial success is realized by various companies producing the turbines and researching technologies to make them ever more efficient.

In addition, people are moving away from the traditional electric grids and the fossil fuels for personal reasons including desire for greater independence, the desire to live remotely or rurally without having to go primitive, political concerns such as fears of terrorist strikes on oil fields or power grids, or concerns about the environment.

Again, this motivation to get away from the traditional energy sources is the same one that causes people to seek the power of the wind for their energy, giving more business opportunities to profit from wind turbine production and maintenance, which drives their costs down for the consumers.In nearly thirty states at the time of this writing, homeowners who remain on the grid but who still choose to use wind energy (or other alternative forms) are eligible for rebates or tax breaks from the state governments that end up paying for as much as 50% of their total green energy systems costs.

In addition, there are 35 states at the time of this writing where these homeowners are allowed to sell their excess energy back to the power company under what are called net metering laws. The rates that they are being paid by the local power companies for this energy are standard retail rates in other words, the homeowners are actually profiting from their own energy production.

Some federal lawmakers are pushing to get the federal government to mandate these tax breaks and other wind power incentives in all 50 states. Japan and Germany already have national incentive programs in place. However, A lot of this is handled regionally by state law. There wouldn't really be a role for the federal government, the Energy Department's Craig Stevens says.

And as might be imagined, there are power companies who feel that it's unfair that they should have to pay retail rates to private individuals. We should [only have to] pay you the wholesale rate for ... your electricity, according to Bruce Bowen, Pacific Gas & Electric's director of regulatory policy.

However, the companies seem to be more worried about losing short term profits than about the benefits, especially in the long run, of the increased use of wind turbines or wind farms. Head of the Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technologies of California V. John White points out, It's quality power that strengthens the grid.

About the Author:
Warren has been actively helping save the earth for future generations. See how you can help too. More information: Alternative Energy

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Western Wind Powers California

By Darryl Kelley

Western Wind Energy Corp is North America’s largest publicly traded pure wind energy producer, currently providing 34 megawatts of wind turbine-generated electricity to the California electrical grid.

Wind is not only the cleanest source of energy available to humanity, it is also the world’s fastest growing source of electrical power. But the United States has been slow to adopt. A Canadian company is changing that though – one wind farm at a time.

Western Wind Energy Corp (TSX.V:WND) is North America’s largest publicly traded pure wind energy producer, currently providing 34 megawatts of wind turbine-generated electricity to the California electrical grid. Right now, it is the only publicly traded company in North America deriving its income exclusively from the sale of electricity generated from wind power.

With the announcement on February 14th of the successful acquisition of a 100 MW wind and solar energy site near Barstow, California, Western Wind has an additional 1,300 MW in its pipeline of expansion sites throughout the state.

The company now has over $1 billion of power sales agreements totaling 155 megawatts from the sale of wind energy electrical generation to two separate utilities.

In the United States during 2007, 5,244 megawatts of generating power was installed by the wind energy industry, breaking all previous records and growing the U.S. national wind generating capacity by 45%.

The new wind projects account for about 30 percent of the entire new power-producing capacity added nationally in 2007 and will power the equivalent of 1.5 million American households annually.

American wind farms will generate an estimated 48 billion kilowatt-hours of wind energy in 2008, just over one percent of U.S. electricity supply, powering the equivalent of over 4.5 million homes.

California is, as might be expected, is a leader among states for installed megawatts of wind generated electricity with 2,439 MW of installed capacity, second only to Texas.

Nancy Rader, executive director of the California Wind Energy Association said, “I think that wind could realistically provide 20% of the state’s electricity needs 13 years from now – up from less than 2% today, which would be about 20,000 MW of capacity.”

Western Wind Energy is perfectly positioned to capture a big piece of that evolving capacity for one simple reason: the management team has 24 years of continuous wind installation operating experience – more than any other company within the industry.

The secret to creating profitable wind installations is in the siting of the turbines. Meteorologist Rich Simon, a consultant to Western Wind, has chosen the locations of over 40,000 turbines, or 10,000 MW of generating capacity around the world. He is one of the industry’s few “go-to” guys, responsible for siting 10% of the world’s turbine capacity since 1977.

As wind resource areas vary, so does the cost of generation. A wind farm operating in a 15 mph yearly average wind speed may have total costs of 6.8 cents per kilowatt-hour. That same wind farm, operation in a 20 mph yearly average wind speed, may have total costs of only 4.9 cents per kilowatt-hour.

Like most major forms of electricity generation, wind power is capital intensive. In economic terms, wind power has an extremely low marginal cost and a high proportion of up-front costs. The energy consumption for producing, installing, operating and eventually decommissioning a wind turbine is typically earned back within three months of operation.

At a robust wind location in the state of California, for each one megawatt installed, or
US$2 million capital invested, $400,000 is generated annually in energy sales with a further $80,000 in annual federal tax credits (Production Tax Credit or PTC).

The Senate Finance Committee last month included an extension of the expiring tax credits for wind, solar, and other renewable energy technologies as part of its economic stimulus package now working its way through Congress.

Western Wind is not content to remain a “wind-only” company, and recently announced a cooperative agreement with Solon America Corporation to develop 5 to 40 megawatts of photovoltaic – solar energy projects in California and an additional 5 – 40 megawatts of photovoltaic – solar energy projects in Ontario, Canada.

Solon America is the subsidiary of $1.2 billion German solar energy equipment manufacturer Solon A.G.

The company was founded in 1998 by CEO Jeff Ciachurski, who has negotiated more than 200MW of off-take agreements and raised over $50 million to acquire real estate and develop the company's projects.

His objective?

“To grow Western Wind Energy into a mid-size wind developer and operator with a market capitalization of between US $1 billion and US $4 billion.”

Given the company’s success to date, that doesn’t come across as just a lot of wind

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Understanding How Wind Turbines Generate Power

Wind power is considered a renewable energy source because it will be with us as long as the sun beats down on the planet. Wind is a creation of heat produced by objects warming up under the relentless rays of the sun. Certain objects warm up faster than others. When this occurs, wind is created. As hot air rises off the hotter objects, cooler air rushes in to fill the gap. This rushing process is, of course, wind.
Wind power has long been of interest to scientists and energy companies. It is relatively cheap and can easily be tied into the current utility grids that feed power to nations. The question with wind power has always been how to generate enough energy from wind power to make it feasible. The entire discussion comes down to wind turbines.
Wind turbines are the devices that catch the wind and convert the inherent energy into electricity. The process works exactly like a hydropower dam. As the wind hits the turbines, the blades catch it and spin. The spinning motion then cranks a turbine, which kicks out electricity. The only difference between the two processes is we are talking about wind instead of water.
A single hydropower dam can produce a lot of electricity, but a single wind turbine cannot. Why? Well, the water rushing through a dam is condensed under the weight of itself. When it is released into the generator shutes, it also runs at a near vertical angle to maximize the speed of the water and generator cranking output. With wind, both of these factors are non-existent. One cannot really harness the wind to really power up a wind turbine. Instead, one has to install dozens and even hundreds of turbines to generate significant amounts of electricity. As you might imagine, this can cause problems.
The biggest problem with wind power is the number of turbines needed to produce enough electricity. While the turbines have grown more efficient and larger, one still needs significant numbers to produce enough tangible energy. The two primary solutions are old and new. The old solution is to find great swaths of vacant land for the turbines. With growing populations, this is still relatively difficult and expensive. The new solution is to build wind farms at sea. This makes much more sense since the wind on the ocean is nearly constantly there and the “land” isn’t costly.
At the end of the day, experts estimate wind power will account for upwards of 20 percent of all our energy needs in the next two decades. With further refinements and the use of offshore platforms, the number could be much higher.
Rick Chapo is with SolarCompanies.com - information on wind power.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Richard_Chapo

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