GO GREEN!!!: The Power of the Wind

After investigating solar power last week, I thought a good topic for this week would be wind power. The reasons for using wind power are the same as solar, we are slowly but surely running out of fossil fuels. Wind power is becoming more popular and a lot more high-tech. First, lets look at how a wind turbine works. As wind passes over the three blades, it causes them to turn. This spins a shaft, in turn rotating the gears of a generator. This may seem simple, but several variables can affect the amount of power generated. The first one of these variables is wind speed. The turbine can start generating electricity at about 8 mph. Once wind speed reaches about 65 mph, the turbine will be stopped because these speeds could damage it. The radius of the blades also affects the turbines total power output. Doubling the radius quadruples the output! Another factor is air density. Heavier air (at a lower altitude) generates more power. This is why offshore wind turbines are becoming more common. With an average wind speed of just 15 mph over the course of a year, a single wind turbine with a blade radius of only 50 feet could power about 50 homes.

So exactly how much power can we get from wind? Is it possible to rely entirely on wind for power? To answer these questions, we will take a look at Denmark. A large island off the coast of Denmark called Samso Island gets 100% of its power from wind. This island is home to about 4,000 people, and all of there homes are supplied with electricity from wind turbines. In the United States, wind power accounts for around 2-3% of our total power, and yet we are one of the leaders in wind power output. The U.S Department of Energy's Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy branch conducted a wind resource potential for the entire United States. They concluded that the U.S has a capacity to produce 36,919,551 gigawatt hours of electricity. The annual electricity consumption in the U.S in only about 4,119,000 gigawatt hours. Keep in mind that is just the potential wind energy production, and it would cost a lot to meet that potential. Wind power is becoming increasingly popular however, and combined with solar and other forms of energy production, the need for fossil fuels will decrease.