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. 

Wind Farms

The San Gorgonio Wind Farm is located on the eastern slopes of the homonymous pass, one of the windiest places in California.  When it was completed, the farm consisted of 3,218 turbines that produced enough energy to light up a city the size of San Francisco.

Utility-scale wind farms are generally located in areas with average annual wind speeds of at least 13 miles per hour. Most of the wind power is generated during the hot summer months because the speed of the wind is at its highest.

While the power produced by many of the older wind turbines is not cost-competitive with other forms of electricity generation, some of the newest wind turbine designs may be able to match or beat the power prices from many coal and nuclear plants.

Advantages of wind power include:  replaces the need to build more polluting power plants, it produces clean renewable energy, there is enough potential wind energy in the U.S. to power the entire country.

Potential issues associated with wind farm development include:  use of large tracts of land, erosion in desert areas, noise, avian mortality due to collisions with wind turbines and associated wires.