Wind can be an awesome force of nature, just question anyone who has been in a tornado or powerful hurricane. We can harness this wind for the use of generating electricity for our world. When the sun shines it heats the earth, but since the earth is made of different materials and is of differing heights and valleys it heats unevenly, especially over land and water.
Daytime is when the air above the land heats up more quickly, and it heats the air over water more slowly. Warm air that is above the land expands and rises, and cooler air quickly comes in to fill the gaps, and this makes wind. In the evening, the winds reverse, because air cools more quickly over land than over water. This is why you have the differing temperatures of land near bodies of water.
Today as we look for new ways to power the earth, it is a natural thing to look at wind power. It has been used for many years to power simple machines of the past. Wind is another type of solar energy, which makes it a renewable energy source. In years past we used windmills, the wind machines of today are called turbines.
Just like the windmills, turbines also use blades to capture the wind and turn it into energy. If there is no wind, then the turbines will not turn, this means that you must have a back up source of energy. Turbines are more sophisticated than windmills and they can use even the slightest breeze to turn the blades.
Turbines today can use a horizontal or vertical axis, though most are made with a horizontal axis. They also come in many different sizes depending on what they are meant to supply energy for. If it is for a home or small office the turbines will be about 20 feet or more and can place out about 1000 kilowatts. The larger ones can place out as much as 5 megawatts, and these are used for commercial purposes. You might see wind farms which are made up of the larger turbines, and these supply a grid which can power a whole community.
You will find that most turbines used today have a horizontal axis. They have blades that are made much like airplane propellers are. A horizontal turbine will typically stand about as tall as a 20 tale building and will generally have three blades which can span as much as 200 feet.
One major drawback of electric wind power is that the windmills used to generate power are massive and make a lot of noise. It can be used in remote places of the countryside as space and higher terrain is needed for it. Due to this reason it has a limited scope of use and not practical to install in densely populated areas.
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