subject: Discovering the Basics of Wind Turbines [print this page] Discovering the Basics of Wind Turbines Discovering the Basics of Wind Turbines
Humans have been harvesting the might of the wind for more than 5,000 years. One of the first applications was on boats which captured a breeze in their sails and used that to propel them across the water. Further developments led to early windmill technology, which was used to pump water and grind grain - primarily for agricultural purposes. These techniques began to lose favor following the industrial revolution, when steam engines were able to perform functions such as powering mills and propelling boats.
Wind-generated power become a popular concept again toward the end of the 20th Century as more and more people began to look for sources of energy which did not rely on burning fuel. During this resurgence, a large part of the appeal of using air movement to produce power was that it was a cheap alternative to petroleum. In the beginning of the 21st Century, an increased attention to the harmful long-term effects which extracting and burning fossil fuels has on the environment has lead to greater funding and research being put into technologies which make use of wind power.
Essentially, wind is the effect produced when pockets of air which have a high density disperse to areas of lower air pressure. Almost all adults are familiar with the Earth's variable climate, and this leads to repeating cycles of high and low pressure systems. The fundamental motivation behind wind turbine technology is that these devices are able to use rotor blades to use airflow over these blades to cause a rotor to begin spinning.
These rotors are connected to a gearbox. The gearbox operates in a way which is comparable to how bicycle gears work, allowing a relatively slow rotor rotation rate to produce a higher output via differential gear ratios. This is necessary because most turbines are only able to rotate at a rate of between 15 and 50 rotations per minute, whereas effective power generation requires closer to 1,500 RPM. So, if one rotation of the rotor can be converted into around 75 revolutions of a smaller gear, the system can accomplish the task required of it. The gearbox is typically connected to a generator, which then converts this rotating motion into usable energy.
With the gaining cultural influence of the environmental movement and renewable energy, wind turbines are becoming an increasingly popular source of renewable energy. There are more and more government initiatives to encourage businesses and homeowners to install devices which operate in a similar way. For example, the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 offers tax incentives to people or organizations that effectively use renewable sources of energy. These are often extended to manufacturers as well, and this helps encourage investment in the technology.
