Wind Turbines

Turbine Placement Because much more energy is found in faster winds, it is wise to place wind turbines where the wind is strong, steady and smooth. Wind turbines placed just above the ground on a breezy knoll make lovely spinning pieces of artwork, but they dont produce much electricity. A good wind site has consistent, fast wind that pumps genuine energy into the turbines generator for many hours of every day. Occasional gusty days or steady but light breezes just dont cut it. Wind turbines also like smooth air - the air found high above buildings, trees and other obstacles. So a wind turbine that serves its owner well sits atop a high tower - at least 80 feet above the ground - in a consistently windy place. Rotor Size Another important factor is the sweep of the wind turbines rotor. Envision a circle described by the tips of the blades as they spin. The wind that passes through this circle will sacrifice some of its kinetic energy to the machine as it passes through. The formula for calculating area (for a traditional turbine design) is Area = R2 where R is the length of one blade. That means that as the length of the blades increase, the swept area goes up very quickly, in fact it is squared in relation to blade length. So the amount of wind energy spinning a turbine depends mainly on two things: windspeed and the swept area of the turbine. You already know that as windspeed doubles the available energy is cubed. As swept area doubles, available energy is squared again! You can see why big turbines in fast, steady winds make oodles of power, and why turbines with small rotors will never be able to harvest much energy, relatively speaking. Nevertheless, a relatively small rotor, say 15-20 feet in diameter, may be a very good choice for helping to power an off-grid home or small farm that has a decent wind resource. Its no wonder, then, that were seeing bigger and bigger commercial-scale wind turbines these days. Their size is limited only by the strength of their The former oil rig fabrication yard at Nigg, Scotland is now being used to build two huge 5 megawatt materials and the logistics of moving giant blades prototype wind turbines to be placed out at sea. and towers on highway trailers or ocean barges. The John Wright and licensed for reuse under Creative Commons Licence. swept area of the largest models is now much larger than a football field and these slowly rotating giants can produce more than two million watts (2 megawatts). Thats about 1,000 homes powered by one machine. A wind farm made up of these giants can help power a country - as in Denmark where wind turbines generate 3,500 megawatts of power.