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Contents contributed and discussions participated by dynesbri97

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Wind power in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 0 views

  • The use of wind power in the United States has expanded quickly over the last several years. Construction of new wind power generation capacity in 2011 totaled 6810 megawatts
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Wind Energy America - FAQs - 1 views

  • Simply put, an average one megawatt wind turbine will produce enough energy for the annual needs of 350 average households. The amount of energy produced by a turbine varies depending on several factors, namely the size and reliability of the turbine, and the speed that the wind is blowing. These factors together produce the turbine’s capacity. Typically modern turbines range in size from 660 kilowatts to over 3 megawatts of capacity. They are placed in fairly windy locations with minimum wind speeds in the range of six meters per second (around 13 miles per hour). Wind turbines generally run at 30 to 40 percent capacity, so a 1 MW turbine could produce around 3 million KWh of electricity in a year.
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The Energy Story - Chapter 16: Wind Energy - 2 views

  • Farmers have been using wind energy for many years to pump water from wells using windmills like the one on the right
  • When a boat lifts a sail, it is using wind energy to push it through the water. This is one form of work.
  • Wind is also used to turn large grinding stones to grind wheat or corn, just like a water wheel is turned by water power.
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  • Wind can be used to do work. The kinetic energy of the wind can be changed into other forms of energy, either mechanical energy or electrical energy
  • n Holland, windmills have been used for centuries to pump water from low-lying areas.
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Wind Energy Basics - 5 views

  • Wind is a form of solar energy. Winds are caused by the uneven heating of the atmosphere by the sun, the irregularities of the earth's surface, and rotation of the earth. Wind flow patterns are modified by the earth's terrain, bodies of water, and vegetative cover. This wind flow, or motion energy, when "harvested" by modern wind turbines, can be used to generate electricity.
  • The terms "wind energy" or "wind power" describe the process by which the wind is used to generate mechanical power or electricity. Wind turbines convert the kinetic energy in the wind into mechanical power. This mechanical power can be used for specific tasks (such as grinding grain or pumping water) or a generator can convert this mechanical power into electricity to power homes, businesses, schools, and the like.
  • Wind turbines, like aircraft propeller blades, turn in the moving air and power an electric generator that supplies an electric current. Simply stated, a wind turbine is the opposite of a fan. Instead of using electricity to make wind, like a fan, wind turbines use wind to make electricity. The wind turns the blades, which spin a shaft, which connects to a generator and makes electricity.
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  • Modern wind turbines fall into two basic groups; the horizontal-axis variety, like the traditional farm windmills used for pumping water, and the vertical-axis design, like the eggbeater-style Darrieus model, named after its French inventor. Most large modern wind turbines are horizontal-axis turbines.
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Wind power - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 1 views

  • Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form of energy, such as using wind turbines to make electricity, windmills for mechanical power, windpumps for water pumping or drainage, or sails to propel ships
  • Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form of energy, such as using wind turbines to make electricity, windmills for mechanical power, windpumps for water pumping or drainage, or sails to propel ships.
  • The total amount of available power from the wind is considerably more than present human power use from all sources.[3] At the end of 2011, worldwide nameplate capacity of wind-powered generators was 238 gigawatts (GW), growing by 41 GW over the preceding year.[4] Wind power now (2010 data) has the capacity to generate 430 TWh annually, which is about 2.5% of worldwide electricity usage.[5][6] Over the past five years (2010 data) the average annual growth in new installations has been 27.6 percent. Wind power market penetration is expected to reach 3.35 percent by 2013 and 8 percent by 2018.[7][8] Several countries have already achieved relatively high levels of wind power penetration, such as 21% of stationary electricity production in Denmark,[5] 18% in Portugal,[5] 16% in Spain,[5] 14% in Ireland[9] and 9% in Germany in 2010.[5][10] As of 2011, 83 countries around the world are using wind power on a commercial basis
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  • A large wind farm may consist of several hundred individual wind turbines which are connected to the electric power transmission network. Offshore wind power can harness the better wind speeds that are available offshore compared to on land, so offshore wind power’s contribution in terms of electricity supplied is higher.[11] Small onshore wind facilities are used to provide electricity to isolated locations and utility companies increasingly buy back surplus electricity produced by small domestic wind turbines. Although a variable source of power, the intermittency of wind seldom creates problems when using wind power to supply up to 20% of total electricity demand, but as the proportion rises, increased costs, a need to use storage such as pumped-storage hydroelectricity, upgrade the grid, or a lowered ability to supplant conventional production may occur.[12][13][14] Power management techniques such as excess capacity, storage, dispatchable backing supply (usually natural gas), exporting and importing power to neighboring areas or reducing demand when wind production is low, can mitigate these problems.
  • Wind power, as an alternative to fossil fuels, is plentiful, renewable, widely distributed, clean, produces no greenhouse gas emissions during operation, and uses little land. In operation, the overall cost per unit of energy produced is similar to the cost for new coal and natural gas installations.[15] The construction of wind farms is not universally welcomed, but any effects on the environment from wind power are generally much less problematic than those of any other power source
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Renewable Solar Energy: How is Wind Formed - 0 views

  • Wind is formed by the indirect effect of the sun on the Earth’s surface. There is a reasonable explanation why is it so. As the sun shines, the Sun heats the Earth's surface; the air near ground level gets hot and rises up. Cold air at higher altitudes replaces it. At nighttime the process is reversed. This is  in principal how is wind formed on Earth.
  • This process of hot air rising and colder air sinking, causes high and low air pressure areas and results in wind formation. The more the pressure changes in an area, the faster the wind speed will be. If two areas are close to each other, pressure difference will cause higher wind speed to be produced compared to areas that are far apart from each other. This is how the wind is formed on Earth and this phenomena is known as vertical wind formation
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How is Wind Formed? - Answers.Ask.com - 0 views

  • Wind is formed when heats over a large area, causing the air to expand and causing a pressure change. When a low pressure system runs into a high pressure system, it causes a change in the air resulting in wind
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How does wind form - 0 views

  • All winds are caused by differences in air pressure, which are usually caused by the sun. When high air pressure flow into low air pressure, it creates wind.Our planet turns around the Sun on an axis with a 23 degree tilt towards the North Star. The difference of heating on the surface of the Earth (between the equator and the pole) causes a mass of hot air to go up and to displace colder air toward the bottom - this all causes movement in the mass of air that is contain in our atmosphere.
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Wind - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 0 views

shared by dynesbri97 on 13 Mar 12 - Cached
  • Wind is the flow of gases on a large scale. On Earth, wind consists of the bulk movement of air. In outer space, solar wind is the movement of gases or charged particles from the sun through space, while planetary wind is the outgassing of light chemical elements from a planet's atmosphere into space. Winds are commonly classified by their spatial scale, their speed, the types of forces that cause them, the regions in which they occur, and their effect. The strongest observed winds on a planet in our solar system occur on Neptune and Saturn.
  • Winds can shape landforms, via a variety of aeolian processes such as the formation of fertile soils, such as loess, and by erosion. Dust from large deserts can be moved great distances from its source region by the prevailing winds; winds that are accelerated by rough topography and associated with dust outbreaks have been assigned regional names in various parts of the world because of their significant effects on those regions. Wind affects the spread of wildfires. Winds disperse seeds from various plants, enabling the survival and dispersal of those plant species, as well as flying insect populations. When combined with cold temperatures, wind has a negative impact on livestock. Wind affects animals' food stores, as well as their hunting and defensive strategies.
  • Wind is caused by differences in pressure. When a difference in pressure exists, the air is accelerated from higher to lower pressure. On a rotating planet, the air will be deflected by the Coriolis effect, except exactly on the equator. Globally, the two major driving factors of large-scale winds (the atmospheric circulation) are the differential heating between the equator and the poles (difference in absorption of solar energy leading to buoyancy forces) and the rotation of the planet. Outside the tropics and aloft from frictional effects of the surface, the large-scale winds tend to approach geostrophic balance. Near the Earth's surface, friction causes the wind to be slower than it would be otherwise. Surface friction also causes winds to blow more inward into low pressure areas.
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  • [hide]General wind classifications Tropical cyclone classifications (all winds are 10-minute averages) Beaufort scale[17] 10-minute sustained winds (knots) General term[20] N Indian Ocean IMD SW Indian Ocean MF Australian region South Pacific BoM, BMKG, FMS, MSNZ NW Pacific JMA NW Pacific JTWC NE Pacific & N Atlantic NHC & CPHC 0 <1 Calm Low Pressure Area Tropical disturbance Tropical low Tropical Depression Tropical depression Tropical depression Tropical depression 1 1–3 Light air 2 4–6 Light breeze 3 7–10 Gentle breeze 4 11–16 Moderate breeze 5 17–21 Fresh breeze Depression 6 22–27 Strong breeze 7 28–29 Moderate gale Deep depression Tropical depression 30–33 8 34–40 Fresh gale Cyclonic storm Moderate tropical storm Tropical cyclone (1) Tropical storm Tropical storm Tropical storm 9 41–47 Strong gale 10 48–55 Whole gale Severe cyclonic storm Severe tropical storm Tropical cyclone (2) Severe tropical storm 11 56–63 Storm 12 64–72 Hurricane Very severe cyclonic storm Tropical cyclone Severe tropical cyclone (3) Typhoon Typhoon Hurricane (1) 13 73–85 Hurricane (2) 14 86–89 Severe tropical cyclone (4) Major hurricane (3) 15 90–99 Intense tropical cyclone 16 100–106 Major hurricane (4) 17 107–114 Severe tropical cyclone (5) 115–119 Very intense tropical cyclone Super typhoon >120 Super cyclonic storm Major hurricane (5)
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