Wind Turbine Wind Mill Energy

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) February 24, 2010 -- Wind Turbine Wind Mill have been harnessing the wind's energy for hundreds of years from Holland to farms in the United States. Wind Turbine Windmills have been used for pumping water or grinding grain.

Wind will blow as long as the sun shines; as such it is a reliable, renewable energy resource, capable of providing the world with all of its energy needs.

Wind is a clean, inexhaustible energy resource that can generate enough electricity to power millions of homes and businesses.

Wind energy is the conversion of wind kinetic energy into mechanical energy through the use of wind turbines, a technology that has been in use for centuries.

Although wind produces only about 2% of worldwide electricity use, it is growing rapidly, increasing more than six times globally between 2000 and 2006.

The United States can currently generate more than 30,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity from the wind, which is enough to power about 7 million average American homes.

WIND ENERGY

Wind turbines, like windmills, are mounted on a tower to capture the most energy. At 100 feet (30 meters) or more aboveground, they can take advantage of the faster and less turbulent wind.

Turbines catch the wind's energy with their propeller-like blades. Usually, two or three blades are mounted on a shaft to form a ROTOR.

HOW IT WORKS

When the wind blows, a pocket of low-pressure air forms on the downwind side of the blade. The low-pressure air pocket then pulls the blade toward it, causing the rotor to turn.

This is called LIFT. The force of the lift is actually much stronger than the wind's force against the front side of the blade, which is called DRAG. The combination of lift and drag causes the rotor to spin like a propeller, and the turning shaft spins a generator to make electricity.

APPLICATIONS

Wind turbines can be used as stand-alone applications, or they can be connected to a utility power grid or even combined with a photovoltaic (solar cell) system.

For utility power-scale (megawatt-sized) sources of wind energy, a large number of wind turbines wind mills are usually built close together to form a wind plant. Several electricity providers today use wind plants to supply power to their customers.

Homeowners in windy areas can also use stand-alone wind turbines as a way to cut their electric bills.
Small wind systems can be combined to improve the operation of the electricity delivery system.

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