Did you know that electricity can be generated from the wind force? It enters the renewable energies and, in addition, it is the most efficient of all. With wind energy, emissions of large tons of CO2 are avoided to the atmosphere and the generation of polluting waste. Currently, a little more than 3% of electricity consumed in the world comes from wind energy and efficient use of it contributes to sustainable development.
If you want to know a little more about wind energy, continue reading this ecology article about What is wind energy, how it works and examples of places where this renewable energy occurs.
What is wind energy
Wind energy It is one obtained from The force of the windalso called Kinetic Wind Energy and is used to produce electricity. We are facing one renewable energysince the wind is a renewable resource, which is also clean and respectful of the environment. This does not mean that it is harmless or that it does not have any negative impact, all things have it, but in this case it is a renewable energy with a Very low environmental impactcompared to non -renewable energies or other renewables, and which turns out to be very efficient.
To learn more about this and other renewable energies, we recommend you read these other articles of ecology see:
- Renewable and non -renewable energies: examples and summary.
- Do renewable energies contaminate the environment?
- Renewable energies in Spain.
How wind energy works
To be able to Take advantage of the wind and generate electricity It is necessary to build Winding parks with which all possible power of this renewable energy will be extracted. These parks are usually located in depopulated territories, to avoid an impact on the inhabitants. Winding farms are designed with wind turbineswhich are the devices that are responsible for converting the kinetic energy produced by the movement of the wind in electric and the Wind energy operation Thanks to these it is like this:
- The wind turbines present A weather vane In the upper part that indicates the direction of the wind and this makes it possible to turn on the tower, in which they are located, to orient towards the direction of the wind.
- A wind turbine presents some blades or blades that revolve, are made of light and resistant materials that make their movement easier. The blades move even with soft winds and with winds that exceed 90 km/h the wind turbine is stopped for safety.
- These blades are linked to A turbine Through the bushing and this, in turn, it is linked to the slow axis, which turns at the same speed as the shovels, between 7 and 12 laps per minute.
- However, this speed is not enough to produce electricity, which is why it is necessary A multiplier which increases the speed more than 100 times, to transfer it to another axis called fast.
- This axis reaches up to more than 1,500 revolutions per minute and is connected to A generator that transforms kinetic energy into electrical energy.
- The electrical energy generated is conducted by the tower to its base as direct current and a converter transforms it into alternating current, which is what we use in our day to day.
- The alternating current goes to a transformer to raise the tension (20-66kV) of this and thus be able to transport it throughout the park.
- The energy reaches the substation, through cables, to raise the tension again, turning the energy, into high voltage energy.
- Once the high voltage energy is obtained, it will go to the evacuation line, from here the electricity is transferred to all the facilities that are connected to the distribution network, from where It transports electricity to homes.
This is how wind turbines of wind farms work and how the kinetic energy of the wind is transformed into electric. Next, some of the most important wind farms will be shown worldwide, but before we encourage you to discover how to do homemade wind energy with windmills.
Examples of wind energy
This is one Winding Parks List(1) that serve us as good Examples of wind energy:
- Fântâne-Cogealac Wind Park: It is located in Romania and has an operational capacity of 600MW while among the largest parks in the world. The energy that occurs in this park, represents approximately one tenth of all green energy production that occurs in the country.
- Gansu wind complex: It is found in Gansu, in China. This complex exactly consists of 100 wind farms and has an operational capacity of 20,000 MW.
- MUPPANDAL WIND PARK: Built in a town in southern India called Muppandal. It is located in this area located since it is a mountainous area exposed to the wind of the Arabic sea. The construction of this park, which has a power of 1500 MW, benefited the people supplying it with electricity. However, it is expected for this year 2020 that the capacity to produce energy is 26,200 MWh.
- SHEPHERDS FLAT WIND PARK: We are facing the 5th largest wind farm in the world located in the United States between Gilliam and Morrow counties and has an operational capacity of 845 MW. With the energy generated in this parking, approximately 235,000 homes are supplied.
- Texas Wind Park: It is the largest sixth in the world, has 627 wind turbines and has an installed power of 781.5 MW.
- Capricorn Ridge Wind Park: It is also found in Texas and is composed of 342 wind turbines with an operational capacity of 662.5 MW. This park supplies electricity to more than 220,000 houses and avoids the emission of 920,000 tons of greenhouse gases.
There is still much to advance to get a sustainable life model, but wind energy is another option, among other renewable energies, to be closer to get it. To finish learning about What is wind energy, how it works and examples From this, we encourage you to discover the advantages and disadvantages of wind energy more detailed in this post and see this video about this renewable energy.
If you want to read more articles similar to What is wind energy, how it works and exampleswe recommend that you enter our category of renewable energy.
- Roca, José A. The Energy Newspaper. The 10 largest terrestrial wind farms in the world. (2015): https://elperiodicodelaenergia.com/los-10-mayores-parques-olicos-terrestres-del-mundo/