There’s a whole load of people who are into a more “hands-on” approach when it comes to living Off The Grid and harnessing the many clean, renewable energy sources we have available to us. There is also a book’s worth of questions from our go-getter friends regarding the process and components needed to start building their very own energy-pulling power systems.

Wind Energy is probably the most infinite source available because there will never be a lack of wind, and too much wind activity is a good thing when it comes to using it to generate power for your home – a great situation indeed! Lets take a look at what a wind turbine is built from, and more importantly, how wind turbines generate electricity.

Wind

Modern day wind turbines generate electricity for three primary purposes: to power homes, business properties and to provide energy for sale back to the utility companies. Most wind turbines found today generate power ratings between 250 watts all the way up to 5 megawatts. Wind plants, also known as wind farms, generate a capacity which ranges from a few to hundreds of megawatts – which is a lot of power.

The greater majority of wind “power plants” are modular in nature, which essentially means they are designed with smaller modules (turbines) and at a moments notice can increase or decrease the overall output capacity – simply by adding more or less modules.

Energy

Here’s how a wind turbine generates it’s energy: The wind’s energy causes the turbine blades to spin around a rotor. The energy produced by the turbine’s generator is transformed within standard of the National Power System and delivered to the appropriate distribution units. Wind is moving air, and air contains mass therefor when in motion there is kinetic energy. That energy is converted into various forms of mechanical and electrical power. Common turbine subsystems include the following parts and components:

• A rotor or blades
• An enclosure which contains the drive train
• A gear box
• A generator
• A tower
• Ground and interconnection equipment
• Controls and electrical cables

Turbine

Turbines are monitored on a continual basis using a SCADA or Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition system. The turbines and generators are constantly monitored for conditions that may affect operation – in which case the data is immediately sent back through the system to a central monitoring station for indexing, analytical process and documentation. This process helps the utility companies and appropriate government offices collect data just like they would for a nuclear power plant, to recognize trends and work towards improving the overall efficiency of the wind farms.

What is Wind Power or Wind Energy?

Wind power generation is based on the conversion of the wind’s kinetic energy into more useful forms such as electricity. This process creates a pollution-free, infinite source of sustainable energy. More importantly, wind energy doesn’t require fuel; it doesn’t produce greenhouse gases or toxic waste and once your wind power system is set up, it is a completely free source of energy. A great example of wind energy being used in the earlier days would be the windmills that were built for grinding grains.

In modern times, wind power is used for two primary purposes; generating electricity and pumping water. The machines that are used today are called wind turbine generators, wind pumps and wind turbines – which is the more generic name.

The science of Wind Energy

What is wind? Well to put it plainly wind is moving air, and within this moving air is the presence of kinetic energy – the amount of energy can be determined by the speed in which the air is moving at, as well as the density of the air. The density factor is calculated by the temperature of the air, the barometric pressure and the altitude.

Absolutely every wind turbine works the same – as the wind speed increases, there will be a dramatic increase in the power and energy output of the turbine. The windier it is outside, the more power your wind turbine will generate. This presents the conclusion that the most cost-effective wind turbines are the ones located in areas with the most amount of wind.

It is also a known fact that the speed of wind is greatly affected by the terrain and height, which is why it’s normal to see wind turbines placed high up on towers

Wind Energy throughout history

It has been stated that wind power and energy have been used by humans for thousands of years. Before the days of Christ, ancient Persians would harness the power of wind for the purposes of pumping water. Middle Earth was journeyed and discoveries were made using wind powered ships – like Christopher Columbus, and believe it or not, more than one million wind turbines were used to pump electricity to farms in North America as early as the 1920’s. Pretty amazing, right?

It’s no secret that the recent spark in green interests are primarily due to the fact that in 30 to 40 years we will be reaching a shortage of natural gas and oil, therefor we are beginning to look for cleaner, renewable sources of sustainable energy that will be reliable for centuries to come. With the help of modern aerodynamics, we have greatly improved the engineering of modern wind turbines which will provide us with a pollution-free, cost-effective energy solution that we can begin implementing on an individual and national scale.

How much does Wind Energy Cost?

There are three primary factors when determining the cost of wind energy:

• Wind turbine installation expenses
• Any calculated interest on money invested
• The overall amount of energy that is produced

Think about it this way – one can install the same wind turbine in two separate locations, paying the same price for each installation, but if one area is more windy that the other, that site will generate less expensive energy in comparision – even though it cost the same to have both turbines installed. Therefor it’s important to consider the wind activity of a particular location when you are putting together potential costs associated with generating wind energy.

Wind energy is broken down into two categories regarding the cost: large wind and small wind. Large wind systems generate electricity at a wholesale price and are typically used for supply grid electricity, whereas a small wind system will offset electricity supplied by your utility company at retail price. Aside from cost, there are many other significant differences between large and small wind turbine systems such as the technology used and installation requirements.

The Canadian Wind Energy Association provides some great resources that anyone can use as a starting point, regardless of your location. They provide planning tips and help, as well as a Ballpark Cost calculator that will give you a general figure with regards to how much wind energy will cost with your unique situation. Please take some time to visit their website.