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Wind energy
Wind is a vast resource of renewable energy-something borne out through windmills. Windmills use wind flow or kinetic energy for wind, grain grinding, pumping of water and is used for sailing and to fly a kite.
An indirect form of solar energy, wind energy is generated when the sun beats down heavily on the earth and heats it up, causing winds. The air is heated by the sun at different rates in different parts of the globe. This air rises up as wind. In general, wind movement is caused due to the terrain, reserves of water, deserts, vegetation, forests, and habitats.
Wind contains kinetic energy which is converted into mechanical energy due to the wind turbine that is connected to a generator to produce electricity. These turbines are installed over 30 meters high to capture the maximum amount of energy and to catch the faster and less tumultuous wind.
The blades of a turbine acts like that of an airplane. With the wind blowing, a pocket of low-pressure air forms on the underside of the blade. This forces the low-pressure air pocket to pull the blade towards it and causes the rotor to turn.
This is called lift. Its force is much greater than the force of the wind against the front side of the blade or drag. This combination of lifting and dragging causes the rotor to spin while the shaft spins the generator to produce electricity. Wind turbines can be a few hundred watts in capacity to several megawatts.
Economic advantages of wind energy:
- By developing one's own sources of energy translates into importing less fuel from other states and the saved money is ploughed back into the local economy.
- Wind energy can serve as a fuel for the future when fossils fuels become scarcer.
Advantages of wind energy:
- The technology that runs wind energy is old, robust, very well-developed, adaptable and simple.
- Wind turbines do not manual operation and hardly any maintenance. This means they can be left to run on their own for long periods.
- They don't need fuel to run.
- No fuel is required.
- They do not emit CO2 or other hazardous by-products.
- Wind is a renewable fuel source, so as long as there is sunshine, the winds will blow and wind power will be produced
- There are no health risks or air pollution fallouts to wind energy.
Disadvantages of wind energy:
- The power supply here is considerable and therefore needs storage.
- When there are low wind speeds, the power generated by the wind turbine may be insufficient for local needs, and therefore a back-up system will be needed.
- Setting up costs are so high and can be a deterrent to see as an alternative source of energy. Wind energy can only be got when the wind blows.
Wind energy can be procured safely and efficiently. Rural landowners all over the world have learnt to harvest the wind for their purposes. Those who invest in them must consider the value of a wind turbine before getting one.
But as a nation, if one looks for a clean and renewable source of energy, the obvious choice is wind energy. It is a source of energy for the future.
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