Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form, such as electricity, using wind turbines. Wind energy has historically been used directly to propel sailing ships or pumping water or else converted into mechanical energy for grinding grain, but the principal application of wind power today is the generation of electricity.



Boiled down to its simplest principles, a wind generator's rotating blades convert the wind's kinetic energy into rotational momentum in a shaft. The rotating shaft turns an alternator, which creates electricity. This electricity is transmitted through wiring down the tower to its end use. The blades use engineered airfoils, matched to the alternator, that capture the wind's energy. There are two types of wind machines (turbines) used today based on the direction of the rotating shaft (axis): horizontal?axis wind machines and vertical-axis wind machines. The size of wind machines varies widely. Small turbines used to power a single home or business may have a capacity of less than 100 kilowatts. Some large commercial sized turbines may have a capacity of 5 million watts, or 5 megawatts.

Wind speed increases with altitude and over open areas with no windbreaks. Good sites for wind plants are the tops of smooth, rounded hills, open plains or shorelines, and mountain gaps that produce wind funneling. The blades must turn to face the wind, so a yaw bearing is needed, allowing the wind turbine to track the winds as they shift direction. The tail directs the rotor into the wind. Some sort of governing system limits the rotor rpm as well as generator output to protect the turbine from high winds. A shutdown mechanism is also useful to stop the machine when necessary, such as during an extreme storm, when you do not need the energy, or when you want to service the system.

Wind machines generate electricity in 28 different states. The states with the most wind production are Texas, California, Iowa, Minnesota, and Oklahoma. The most serious environmental drawbacks to wind machines may be their negative effect on wild bird populations and the visual impact on the landscape.

is a miracle of modern technology. Electricity is a very convenient form of energy that can be generated using different energy resources. Some of these resources are renewable and some are non-renewable. Basically, there are two kind of Electricity - Static Electricity and Current Electricity. Both depend on electrons, the tiny charged particles that orbit the nucleus of an atom. Most power plants burn fuel, coal, oil, natural gas, and biomass which create steam to drive a turbine that generates electricity. Sometimes nuclear or solar energy creates the steam to drive the turbine.

Electricity generation is the process of converting non-electrical energy to electricity. Electricity is most often generated at a power station by electromechanical generators, primarily driven by heat engines fueled by chemical combustion or nuclear fission but also by other means such as the kinetic energy of flowing water and wind.

Methods Use for Generating Electricity is:-

? Turbines - Rotating turbines attached to electrical generators produce most commercially available electricity. Turbines are driven by a fluid which acts as an intermediate energy carrier.

? Reciprocating Engines - Small electricity generators are often powered by reciprocating engines burning diesel biogas or natural gas. Diesel engines are often used for back up generation, usually at low voltages.

? Photovoltaic Panels - Photovoltaic panels convert sunlight directly to electricity. Although sunlight is free and abundant, solar electricity is still usually more expensive to produce than large-scale mechanically generated power due to the cost of the panels.

? Other Generation Methods - Electrochemical electricity generation is also important in portable and mobile applications. Fluid-based magneto hydrodynamic (MHD) power generation has been studied as a method for extracting electrical power from nuclear reactors and also from more conventional fuel combustion systems.