What+is+wind+power?

What is **//Wind Power//**?

Wind power is, the uses of kinetic energy of flowing air to create mechanical energy in a wind turbine that can be transformed into pollution-free electricity. But, wind power is also a form of solar power because wind is caused by heat from the sun.

Every part of the Earth's surface is heated by solar radiation, but not always evenly or at the same speed. Sand, water, stone, and various types of soil, all different surfaces absorb, retain, reflect, and release heat at different rates. And the Earth usually gets warmer during daylight and cooler at night. Then, as a result, the air above the Earth's surface warms and cools, the hot air rises, and the atmospheric pressure reduces, which the cooler air draws to replace it. This movement of the air is called wind. With the right technology, the wind’s kinetic energy can be captured and converted to other forms of energy such as electricity or mechanical power. And that’s wind power.



Wind power is not a very wide spread energy source because of its cost and how much area it takes up. But there are certain places that have a lot of wind power, and it helps for those places to have the energy needed. Most critics say that if wind power were to be really competitive, it wouldnt need to be subsidized by the PTC(Production Tax Credit). If wind power were to become more popular, then it would take a great deal of money, and a lot of open land area. Also, not many places use the technology of wind power. Most of the nation's wind farms are located in California, but also Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois all have great potential for producing wind energy. For the other places on earth, it is hard to have wind power producing energy because you need a place where the average annual wind speed of at least 14 miles per hour and the area also needs to be flat, with few or no surrounding structures.



Wind power-- A. Chang-Depuy, J.Crespi