Wind power

Wind power is the conversion of wind energy to electrical or mechanical power.  It is accomplished with turbines, windmills, water pumps or sails.  In the prior post I discussed that large wind farms consist of hundreds or thousand of wind turbines, which are connected to the electric power network.  In this post small scale harnessing of the wind is presented.  Windmills have been used for household electricity generation or for the creation of mechanical power such as water pumping over many decades in remote areas.  

In the Greek islands iconic windmills were used for centuries to mill wheat.  

Sails have been used to proper from the tall ships of yesteryear to ultrafast high tech sailboats that competed in the 2013 America’s cup.  These boats were able to attain of speeds of over 40 knots.  Oracle Team USA won by beating Emirates Team New Zealand 9-8 in an exciting series that took place in San Francisco bay.