Posts Tagged ‘wind power’

Industrial Scale Wind Power

Wind turbine farms are an excellent way to the tap the energy of wind, as highlighted by the number of installations in recent years.  Considering raw power output, combustion based power stations are capable of much more than wind turbine systems.  The energy stored in combustion fuels is significant, and as long as these fuels can be obtained at reasonable rates they will outperform the wind power market.

This is not as horrible as it might intially seem.  The truth of the matter is we take for granted all the things in life provided by a solid industrial base.  These industries include mining, metallurgy, timber, manufacturing, all the way down to the equipment we use to harvest our foods.  This base of heavy industry requires a concentrated source of energy.  

Let’s be honest, when we have to produce steel, machine metals, and stamp cars a lot of electricity is required.  A large and varied heavy infrastructure like this is hard to power on wind or alternative energy alone.  The motive energy and heat energy is too significant.

Wind turbines do makes sense in a large variety of applications, however.  Wind machines are an age old, tried and true, simple way to tap a source of free energy.  It just means wind turbine are more adept for supplying power in residential applications and for small commercial applications.

As an example, a 500 MegaWatt power plant can fit in a relatively small space, less than a 1/4 square mile without much difficulty.  As a comparison consider a wind power farm of equal capacity.  At 2 MegaWatts per wind turbine, then over 250 wind turbines would have to be put in place.  Think about the amount of space this would require!  Keep in mind, also, that a steady supply of Wind is required which is not always the case.

Clearly, in locations that make sense wind power solutions should be part of our energy portfolio.  But we must not abandon the advantages of our modern combustion technologies; their efficiencies and cleanliness are much better than days before, and combustion is the most potent way to meet the high energy demands of our industrial base.

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Wind Power For Alternative Energy

As someone who actively promote Renewable Home Energy
Solutions, that includes the micro-generation of
electricity from wind power in the mix, you may be
surprised that I don’t endorse the use of industrial wind
power generation.

Visit: http://www.renewablehomeenergysolutions.com
 
 
I will go into the reasons I believe that commercial wind
power cannot be regarded as green energy.

The reason for this is that electricity cannot be stored
directly on an industrial scale therefore because there are
no large electricity storage capacity the commercial wind
generators operate in a just-in-time system framework i.e.
the electricity generated by these turbines is pushed onto
the power grid as soon as it is generated. When commercial wind generators are linked into
the electricity power grid they have to be monitored
constantly, second by second, to ensure a constant supply
of electricity throughout the grid.

As the generation and demand have to be
balanced on the grid constantly throttling gas and oil
turbines up and down to counter losses and gains from wind
turbines generates more CO2 per kWh generated than if
operated normally.

Wind power is expensive, unreliable and won’t save on
natural gas. A
price that greatly distorts the markets as the real cost of
wind power is hidden.

At the same time that Europe experienced a 15% increase in
energy cost, the United Kingdom experienced a 29.7 % rise
in gas and electricity prices. Ofgem, (Office of Gas and
Electricity Markets) the government regulator for the
electricity and downstream natural gas markets in the
United Kingdom, believes that wind subsidies was a prime
factor for the difference and questions the logic when,
taking all the public investment into account, wind
generates a mere 1.3% of the United Kingdom’s energy needs.

According to the United Kingdom’s government statistics, in
2006, the average load factor for wind turbines across the
United Kingdom was just 27.4% with the worst performing
turbine having a load factor of only 7%. Therefore a
typical 2MW turbine only produced 0.54MW on average. This
does not compare well with the 90% load factor for thermal
plants.

The poor return on investment is obscured by the subsidy
system which allows turbine operators and supporters to
claim that they make a profit even when wind turbines
operate at very low load factors. The mortality of within the
already declining bird population include raptors and
eagles.

There is also considerable public protest over the noise
and health effects such as provoked by these installation.
Chronic sound trauma due to the low frequency noise
generated by the blades and infra sound transmitted through
the ground.

Apart from the above, nobody talks about the construction
costs or even the maintenance cost of these wind farms.

This loose grouping, termed the
Climate-Industrial Complex do not promote any discussion or
free thoughts on the matter but vilify any person not on
message. They would make the Spanish Inquisition proud in
their labeling any and all dissenters as heretics.

As an afterthought, maybe just maybe, in light of the
financial irregularities with minister’s expenses in the
United Kingdom, we should follow the money and investigate
the relationship between the “partners” of the
Climate-Industrial Complex and look at the politician’s
personal investments within this industry.

The freedom of information act definitely has its uses.
Also as most of these companies are listed on the stock
exchange finding out one can follow the paper trail to
follow the money.

However, I do believe that wind power has a place within
Renewable Home Energy Solutions either as a complementary
mix to solar energy or as stand alone provided one stores
excess energy in an array of batteries.

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Find Out How Wind Power Works

It is now possible to generate electricity from the wind? This is a rather informative article on how it is possible to provide power to your home using wind energy.

My attention will revolve around the following subjects: ways to Build Your Own Solar Power System, producing electricity from solar cells or rather a review on how to generate your own power.

You have heard that it is possible to produce electricity from the wind and you are asking your self; how exactly does wind power work. It makes sense to want to know how something operates before deciding to purchase it. This information is all talked about in the paragraphs below.

Electricity from wind is produced using a scientific principle based on magnetism. Have you ever noticed how you can attract the opposite ends of a magnet together. Well if you can have something constantly cutting the force between the poles of a magnet you can produce electricity.

So in trying to know how exactly does wind power work I would provide the following answer. The larger the magnet and the quicker you can cut the force between the poles the higher the output that you canproduce. That’s why wind turbines come indifferent sizes. The larger ones are able to generate more power. The only setback is they will have a higher cut in speed. This is because wind power is is relied on a supplementary source of energy.

So the wind power system is usually connected to the national grid; and only after the turbine speed attains a particular value will it kick in take over. For as long as the wind stays above that value it will generate power for you. Excess power that you produce can be kept in batteries for later use.

So if you are considering this as a possible choice then you must be in an area where the wind attains speeds of above 10miles per hr. It’s only at this speed that you will make efficient savings and get a reasonable output from your wind system. These are just a few of the things you may need to know about how exactly does wind power work.

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Home Made Power | Earth4Energy Review

Take a look at Earth4Energy now …

Ever increasing numbers of people are finding out about renewable energy, these days, whether it’s passive solar, active solar or reduce household power bills.

 

Much of what is written is either a waste of trees or a load of impractical theories, so when it came to homemade solar panel systems I was very guarded.

 

What I found, confirmed my skepticism, a fair bit of what is presented is impractical to build, there were though a few publications that offered good quality, sound information.

 

Amongst the group, the best of these would be Earth4Energy, which clearly details how to construct a combination solar and wind power system, ideal for the average home.

 

The concept uses mainly recyclable materials, so is incredibly economic to put together, making it possible to have part of the system up in a weekend. The solar panel could take a bit more time, by the time you have located the necessary bits and pieces, but that’s nothing considering what you will save long term.

 

For the average homeowner this package offers a ever conceivable bit of help you will need to allow virtually anyone to build a renewable power system, {comprising both wind and solar power, that will generate power from both solar and wind}.

 

These wind and solar systems are not destined for mansions and don’t expect the first system you build to be able to generate enough power for your entire requirements, it won’t unless you are very energy conscious, it it wasn’t developed to be that big, but it could slash upto 30% on your power bills. That is just the start, once you know how to build one, just build another.

 

This package is a wealth of information, written by a man who lives what he preaches and even if you are only thinking about building a renewable energy system, this book will inspire you to take the first steps.

 

To find out more visit the Earth4Energy website.

Take a look at our Make Wind Turbine homepage …

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