Wind Energy

These notes are taken from the chapter sources of energy class 10 NCERT book and CBSE syllabus.

Wind energy has been in use since ages. The sail boats of the pre-industrialization era used to run on wind power. Windmills have been in use, especially in Holland, since the medieval period. Windmills were traditionally used for sawmill and flourmill.

Windmill

Now-a-days, windmills are being used to generate electricity. The kinetic energy of wind is utilized to run the turbines, which generate electricity.

Wind Turbine

A wind turbine is composed of a rotor and a turbine attached to the rotor. Rotors are huge in size and are installed atop a very tall pole or tower. When the rotor moves because of wind, the turbine attached to it also moves. Subsequently, the turbine converts mechanical energy into electrical energy.

Wind Farm

A group of windmills at the same place is called a wind farm. Numerous rows of windmills are installed at a place. Electricity generated by all the windmills at a wind farm is fed into a grid so that a bigger amount of electrical energy can be supplied to the transmission line.

It is interesting to note that wind energy is a product of solar energy. You may recall that uneven heating of the earth's surface causes wind movements. This shows that wind energy cannot be present in the absence of solar energy.

At present, Germany is the leading country in terms of wind energy production and India comes at number five. In India, Tamil Nadu is the largest wind energy producing state. The largest wind farm in India is near Kanyakumari, in Tamil Nadu, which generates 380 MW of electricity.

Top windfarms of the world

1. Gansu Wind Farm, China, 7,965 MW
2. Muppandal wind farm, India, 1,500 MW
3. Alta (Oak Creek-Mojave), USA, 1,320 MW
4. Jaisalmer Wind Park, India 1,064 MW

Ref: Wikipedia

Advantages of Wind Energy

• Wind energy is inexhaustible source of energy.
• Wind energy is environment-friendly.
• Wind energy can reduce our dependence on fossil fuels.

Limitations of Wind Energy

• Wind farms can only be established at those places where the wind speed is high enough and is more than 15 km/hr for most parts of the year. Wind farms need to be established on large tracts of land.
• The fan of the windmill has many moving parts, so cost of maintenance and repair is quite high. The fact, that it has to suffer the vagaries of the nature further compounds the problem.
• Initial cost of establishing a wind farm is very high.
• Windmills have the potential to disturb birds in flight.