Energy from the wind

Human used the wind energy since thousands of years for hundreds of applications to better human’s life and facilitate their work. The use of winds was only limited by the mind.  The use of wing to generate electricity is relatively recent application.  

What is a wind generator?

In order to generate electricity from wind a generator is required; the wind generator is a device that converts the potential energy in the wind to electrical current. Another form of conversion of the wind energy is a mechanical conversion which is usually applied in applications such as pumping water and grinding grains.

How does the wind generator work?

When the wind blows, the rotor blade installed at the front tip of the generator stops a percentage of the wind.  That percentage is what is converted into energy. According to physics, the maximum amount of wind energy that can be converted is 59.3%, and that is known as the Betz Limit.

Wind generators are divided and classified according to shaft alignment and the type of airfoil (blade) installed on the generator respectively. The shaft alignments include Horizontal Upwind, Horizontal Downwind, and Vertical Axis, while the airfoils are either lifting or drag type.

The Typical Wind System

A typical home-scale wind system consists of one or more wind turbine, batteries bank, charge controller, and an inverter with all necessary switched and circuit barkers. The turbine is usually mounted on a tower 50 to 100 feet high (15-30meter) with at-least 100 feet (30 meter) of radius clearance. The turbine is usually configured to produce direct current, which is stored in a battery bank, and then converted to alternating current using an inverter. The inverter is used to convert the low voltage DC to higher voltage AC.

Your household energy demand and the distribution of windy and calm days will determine the size of the battery bank needed for a complete system. Overall demand may be most cheaply met with a hybrid system that combines a wind turbine and a photovoltaic array.

The system can be off-grid or grid connected. If the system is grid-connected proper meter will be required to ensure that the system owner can be credited for any wind power fed into the grid.

Maintenance

The current generation of wind turbines has been shown to be very reliable. The best small turbines are designed to require little regular maintenance and can operate for 3 to 6 years without major maintenance or repair. However, regular monitoring and occasional maintenance is necessary for long-term reliability.

The Wind's Map of the World