| There is a lot of debate these days about the | | | | It is a simple idea, to make electricity from wind. But |
| advantages and disadvantages of wind power versus | | | | there are other uses for wind power as well. One of |
| solar power. Many solar power enthusiasts feel we | | | | the earliest, original uses of wind was of course to |
| are wasting time and resources pursuing a unreliable | | | | power boats. This method of moving boats across |
| energy source, while many wind power champions | | | | water allowed the earliest civilizations to explore far |
| feel that solar panels are simply not as efficient at | | | | beyond their shores, and was only replaced barely 150 |
| creating electricity as wind turbines are. Both are right | | | | years ago, when the first steam power ships began to |
| in their own way, but wrong in a fundamental way. | | | | be used. Of course even to this day there are millions |
| Wind, like most things on our planet, only exists | | | | of sail boats around, used mostly for leisure, but some |
| because of the sun. As the sun's radiation warms the | | | | still have commercial applications as well. |
| earth, different materials absorb the heat at different | | | | Another ancient use of wind power was to grind grain |
| rates. For instance, water heats much more slowly | | | | using a wheel that was turned by the wind. The wheel |
| than rock, and ice and snow even less than water | | | | would be mounted on a vertical axis, and the windmill |
| since it reflects much of the energy back into space. | | | | would require some kind of gear to translate its |
| Generally the darker material warms faster, and as it | | | | rotation from a horizontal to a vertical axis. This same |
| warms, the heat in turn warms the air above it, which | | | | principle is used in the windmills we sometimes see on |
| then rises. Remembering our basic physics lessons, | | | | the farms, except in that case they are usually used to |
| warm air rises, leaving a void for the cool air to then | | | | pump water for livestock. |
| rush in and fill. This movement we call wind. So really, | | | | So to really answer the question, what is wind power, |
| wind power is really solar power in a different form. | | | | we would have to say that it is clean, renewable, |
| We can harness wind power by getting the motion of | | | | accessible and reliable source of power that has been |
| the air to in turn move a rotor, which generates | | | | used by mankind since the earliest civilizations. In fact, it |
| electricity. This is how a wind turbine works: the blades | | | | is really only in the last 100 years that using the wind |
| of the turbine are mounted on an axis, whether vertical | | | | for power has declined, since the beginning of the oil |
| or horizontal, and cause the axis to spin. This spinning in | | | | age replaced a lot of the technology with a powerful, |
| turn rotates a generator, and electricity is created. The | | | | but dirty alternative. |
| electricity is then transmitted from the generator by | | | | It is time for us to once again start thinking of wind |
| means of a cable, usually to either the source load or | | | | power as a viable source of energy. |
| a battery bank if the excess energy is to be stored. | | | | |