Wind Turbine

Wind turbines are a powerful source of renewable energy. 1-3% of the suns energy is converted into wind energy, which can be used through a wind turbine to create electricity. A wind turbine is a machine used to convert kinetic energy from wind into mechanical electricity, there are two types of wind turbine, ones that rotate on a vertical axis, and ones that rotate on a horizontal axis, the horizontal wind turbine are more frequently used. How a wind turbine works is it has usually 3-4 blades, which are shaped aerodynamic to catch the wind and rotate the blades, thus the kinetic energy of the moving blades is used to work a generator, which produces electricity. Most wind turbine machines have some sort of technology to help direct the blades at the oncoming wind, whether that technology is as simple as a minor wind vane, used in the smaller wind turbine machinery, or full out wind and pressure sensitive computer that turns the wind turbine accordingly.

Out of the most common types of wind turbine (HAWT Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine), there are three main sub types.

Windmills

These wind turbines have usually four, but sometimes more, blades. Most consistently made of a wood frame, with a fabric like cloth used as a sails, are pointed to the wind manually or automatically using a tail fan. Most windmills are not used to make electricity but are directly used to do things such as pumping water from low lying land, or grinding wheat and other grain into flower.

Modern Rural Windmills

This type of horizontal wind turbine is a more modern version of the windmill wind turbine. Used for such things as using small direct-current generators for charging storage batteries, or sometimes used to pump water using the wind turbine to power it.

Common Modern Wind Turbines

Usually three-bladed, although can be found as two-bladed and even some can find a wind turbine with one blade (and a counterweight). These wind turbine machines have computer-controlled motors that sense the wind direction and face the wind turbine accordingly. These are made to go up to 6x the natural wind speed, without using much addition electricity, to generate even more electricity through the wind turbine.

For more information on the Wind Turbine parts and products we carry feel free to visit our site Applied Magnets.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 11th, 2007 at 12:07 pm and is filed under Wind Turbines, Wind Generators. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.