Part of a wind power generating device consists of metal parts (a conductor) moving through the earth’s magnetic field. By doing so, as I recall, an electric current is generated in the conductor. Now I’m sure no such device captures this current, since it must be minuscule. My question is, just how much power would this add up to if it could be captured? For number of wind power generators, I’m thinking that it would be the number of such devices currently online in the U.S.
Hi, I’m Erik Astrand and the man behind this site.
My story? I am about to be 50 and all my life I have been interested in technical things. Not sure if the special interest for the wind, and how to use the wind, started when I as a 5 year old boy and got my first sail dinghy.
Anyway, wind power and to build my own wind generator was a dream for several years. I studied many websites and also bought many courses before I finally built my own windmill. This site is about that journey and you will also find some more general articles about wind power.
Enjoy! and check out the about me page to read more.
Yes, any conductor moving across a magnetic field will generate a voltage across it.
Doing something useful with this voltage is another matter entirely. For instance, if the turbine turns so that its plane of rotation is parallel to the local magnetic field, the voltage falls to zero. The voltage goes from one side of the disc of rotation to the other, but there’s no contact there to allow the current to flow back through a non-moving conductor. Last, Earth’s half-gauss field is very small and not very useful for a generator (as noted above).
A system something like this has been proposed to generate electric power on satellites, using the ~8000 m/sec orbital speed and the near-earth plasma as the return current path. Look up "electrodynamic tether".
Any electric generator has its own magnetic field which is much stronger than the earth’s.
i believe you have some things mixed up in this theory. Though wind is affected with earths movement it does not always mean that it is affected by a magnetic pull. It is shown in the rocks that the magnetic force of earth has changed directions. For wind to generate power there isn’t a machine strong enough to with stand the force of the wind at the altitude to harness the stronger winds. like the Coriolis winds