Wind power is one of the cleanest sources to get electricity. To get large scale energy from wind, wind farms are used. What can we tell about wind turbine efficiency today?
To find out how efficient wind turbines or actually wind farms are, you need to know how they work. The wind turbines accumulate the power of the wind in two steps: the propeller blades are rotated by the wind, and the propeller then drives a shaft. This spinning shaft is connected to a generator. The rotating action cranks the generator, and this is the way the electricity is generated. Actually the system is very like hydropower, but in this case the wind is the energy source rather than falling water. With only one wind turbine you will not get really much electricity and these smaller turbines are meant to power one or maybe a couple of houses.
photo credit: thedailyenglishshow
The strength in wind farms is the combination of many wind turbines in one district, which all are working together to produce electricity. The energy can then be used by communities through existing utility grids or stored in batteries. Modern wind turbines can also turn to catch the wind as it gusts from different angles, a factor which makes them far more efficient than before. The larger the turbine’s blades and the taller the turbine’s height will increase the efficiency as well. This is important to keep in mind when you are planning to build wind generator.
The accurate efficiency of wind farms is very difficult to define. This is because there are that many variables that are unknown or hard to predict. The terrain, amount of wind, size of turbines and so on are variables that always differ. Often, one wind mill will convert about 21 percent of the power in wind to electricity. The most efficient production is between 6 and 19 miles an hour of wind speed.
While wind technology has not went to a point where no energy is lost while harnessing it, it is fair to say that it is favorable compared to other renewable sources. It may take a while for the whole world to catch on to using wind as a power source. The fact is that it has definitely become an important alternative energy source. Countries such as Denmark and China are absolutely investing a lot into this kind of renewable energy.
