Wind Energy Facts

・    For each megawatt of energy produced by the wind, approximately $1 million USD in economic development is produced. This includes all phases of construction and maintenance of building the associated wind turbines and infrastructure.
・    Using wind energy helps rural communities by bringing added revenue to depressed areas that would not otherwise have additional revenue.
・    Farm owners can supplement their income with wind power generation at rates equivalent to approximately $14,000 USD per year per 2/3 acres of wind turbine deployment.
・    The costs of electricity produced by wind power is more stable and better supports consumers who are on fixed incomes.
・    Wind energy is a renewable resource with 46 states in the U.S. having the capacity to develop significant wind power generation resources.
・    A greater adoption of wind energy by the U.S. Could help eliminate carbon dioxide emissions by up to one third of current emission levels.
・    Wind energy farms do not emit air pollutants or greenhouse gases.
・    Approximately 80% of the cost of developing wind power is in the wind turbine machinery.
・    The greatest barriers against widespread construction of wind turbine farms are potential noise, visual impact of the installation of wind turbine farms, and birds flying into moving windmill blades.
・    The U.S. Department of Energy has a stated goal of 5% of the U.S.’s electricity to come from wind energy by 2020 and to increase the federal use of wind energy to 5% in 2010.
・    Wind energy accounted for 1% of all electricity production world-wide in 2005
・    Germany is the leading producer of wind energy. The U.S. Is third.
・    Wind energy produces more than 20% of the electrical consumption in Denmark and is growing.
・    Wind turbines produced 52 billion kilowatts of power in the United States in 2008 for a total of 1.3% of total U.S. Electricity production. This was enough to power 4.6 million houses equivalent to the state of Colorado.

How Does a Wind Energy System Work?

A system designed to create energy from the wind will take the movement of the wind, or kinetic energy, and use it to create either mechanical or electrical energy. The traditional usage of a windmill in the United States was to help move water, but today includes generating electricity on the individual or regional scale. There have been two designs of wind mills or wind turbines that have become prevalent in use: the horizontal-axis or traditional looking windmill, and the vertical axis or egg-beater style windmill. Each wind turbine system will consist of a rotor that is used to take the wind’s energy and create rotational shaft energy, a nacelle that has the drive train and generator, a support tower, and various electronic equipment depending on how the electricity is going to be used. As the energy is created and transferred to the drive train and generator, it can then be part of the electrical grid in your home once converted to 120 V AC current or stored as DC current in a battery for future use. On wind farms, it will be mixed with the electricity produced by other power plants to be delivered to customers. Some of the larger wind turbines being tested in the later 2000′s can produce 5,000 kW of power. Most windmills have towers that are made of steel with fiberglass poly or wood-epoxy blades.

How Large Does a Wind Turbine Have to Be?

The windmills or wind turbines used for large scale commercial purposes will range from a 50 to 90 meter diameter of the blades with towers approximately the same height. The larger windmills would stand at approximately 440 feet in height. There has been testing for off-shore windmills to stand another 60 feet in height. Wind turbines for use at the home are normally much smaller and have a diameter of 8 meters and smaller depending on the amount of electricity that needs to be created.

How Much Power Do Wind Turbines Make?

The total output of a windmill or wind turbine will depend on how big the turbine is and the wind speed in the area. The current windmills being produced have a rating of 5 MW. These turbines can produce up to 15 million kWatts of power in a year which can power up to 1,400 average households in the United States. The average electrical consumption in the United States is approximately 10,000 kWatts. In order to produce electricity near the total rating of the wind turbine, an average annual wind speed of more than 9mph is required, so wind turbines are not necessarily suitable for use in all areas.