Allen.berthiaume.Fall.2010

=Wind Power=



=A Growing problem= ==One of the greatest Problems facing our generation is our destruction of the atmosphere and the consequences it will have on our lives as well as generations to come. So what is going on? For years we have abused our atmosphere by releasing large amounts of carbon dioxide into it. Heating homes and providing electricity is a big contributor to this problem. Power plants that burn coal, natural gas, and crude oil release large amounts of carbon dioxide into the air. Also every time we drive our cars, we are releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. One problem is that there has not been another source that can provide the amount of energy that our natural resources done for us. But, we are reaching a point where if we continue to use fossil fuels at our current rate it won’t be long before they run out. In fact it is possible that we will see this in our life time. The result of the carbon dioxide being released is that it is causing global warming which is causing the glaciers to melt. Also this is causing the amount of fresh drinking water to be diminished. Once these fossil fuels are used up, they are gone forever. They are non renewable.==

- Due to the burning of fuels about six gigaton’s of carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere each year.
==- Carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere have risen from about two hundred and seventy parts per million before the industrial age to about three hundred and eighty parts per million by 2006, a forty one percent increase over pre-industrial values and a thirty one percent increase since 1870.==

- This additional water vapor does again increase the effect of global warming.








==-Using a website that we found it allowed us to calculate the average [|carbon footprint] per house and what ours was personally. The average household contributes 32, 549 pounds of carbon dioxide a year. When I calculated my carbon footprint it was 37, 690 pounds of carbon dioxide a year. The aspects that the website used where flight, transportation, home.==

=Driving Force=

==The driving force behind this growing problem is all human error. Because of humans abusing the use of fossil fuels we are now in a hole we desperately need to dig ourselves out. For to long power plants, factories and means of transportation have released increasing amounts of carbon dioxide into our atmosphere. Another driving force has to do with the world greed. Most people drive big trucks and power plants do not want to spend the money on emission control.==



What are people NOT doing?

==People need to step up and face this problem of carbon dioxide emissions head on. People refuse to use energy saving light bulbs let alone shut off the light when they leave the room. People leave things plugged in when they could simply unplug them to conserve energy. One person driving in an SUV doesn’t make any sense and it is destroying our atmosphere. Society needs to begin carpooling much more often or take the bus or train. Even if your job isn’t far from work ride your bike instead of polluting the atmosphere with your vehicle. Not all states in the U.S have emission policies when it comes to power plant emissions. The same goes for other countries regarding power plants. The fact of the matter is people as a whole want to pretend this problem isn’t happening. Everyone just turns a blind eye to the fact that planet earth is being destroyed by human beings. The human race must step up to the challenge of our deteriorating climate and begin making vast advances in solving this problem. The ignorance of the world population is outstanding and people need to change.==

=What are people doing?=

==This portion of the population seems to be much lower than the amount of people who are not doing anything. Some of the things that people are doing are the exact opposite of what was mentioned for what people are not doing. The population as a whole is not being energy conscious. Some individuals are driving smart cars or smaller cars that are more economical on gas. Other people are using energy saving lights in their homes. Some people are using solar panels on their homes to help lower their homes energy consumption. Some businesses and schools are also using solar panels on light posts. Mass. Maritime is one of those places. A single Mass. Maritime light post will produce light for two weeks off one single sunny day. Some countries and cities are encouraging that people use public transportation instead of driving their car to work to cut down on the carbon dioxide that is being released each day. Riding bikes, walking, taking the subways are all ways to reduce carbon dioxide being released into the air. Other ways that people are trying to reduce their carbon footprint are trying to come up with another fuel source that we can run are cars on that can be as readily available as crude oil. Also a big part of this is a way for our energy to be produced to power our lives. Such ways are solar power, hydrogen, hydro power, nuclear power and many more. The one that we feel is a big possibility is wind power.== =So what do we do?=

=//“The Answer, My friend, is blowin’ in the wind. The answer is blowin in the wind.//= =//-Bob Dylan//=

//What is wind power?//
==Wind power is conversion of wind energy into a useful form of energy, such as using wind turbines to make electricity, wind mills for mechanical power, wind pumps for pumping water and sails to propel ships.==



=How does it work?=

==Some people may not know that wind power is actually from of solar power. The sun is responsible for the production of wind. In short the energy that is made from a wind turbine spinning around can be captured and converted in to other types of energy such as electrical or mechanical. When the wind blows and spins the propeller on the wind turbine which turns a generator which is used to produce electricity. If there is a large amount of these wind turbines in one area it is called a wind farm. And the more wind turbines the more electricity that can be produced. There needs to be a wind speed around 25km/h to spin the propeller fast enough to generate electricity. The blades on the wind turbines play a big part in generating electricity. First of all the blades are really massive so the can push a great deal of air by them. Also the blades are angled to deal with different wind speeds. The propeller and generator can rotate around at the top to adjust for the wind coming from different directions. The reason for the towers being so tall is that the wind is greater at higher altitudes and the taller they are the better the wind flow to them. The energy that is being converted is that of kinetic energy to mechanical or electrical energy. A good way to look at how a wind turbine works is that it is opposite of a fan. A fan uses electricity to make wind and a wind turbine uses wind to make electricity. That’s basically how turbines work. After the generator creates electricity it can then be transferred to a grid where that electricity can be distributed to schools and homes, and businesses. The different types of wind turbines are horizontal and vertical. 100 kilowatt turbines to a few megawatts are used for industrial use and wind turbines under 100 kilowatts are used for homes.==

__Brake__ - it is a disc brake which is used to stop the rotor in emergencies.
==__Controller__ - The controller starts up the machine when wind speeds of 8 to 16 miles per hour are achieved and shuts down the machine at about 55 miles per hour. Turbines do not operate at wind speeds above about 55 mph because they might be damaged by the high winds.== ==__Gear box__ - Connects the low speed shaft to the high speed shaft and helps increase the rotational speeds from roughly 30 to 60 rotations per minute to about 1000 to 1800 rpm. The speed rotationally required by most generators to produce electricity.==

__Rotor__ - blades and the hub together are called the rotor
==__Tower__ - are typically constructed from tubular steel, concrete, or steel lattice. Due to the fact wind speed increases with height, taller towers enable turbines to capture more energy and generate more electricity.==

__Wind vane__ - communicates with the yaw drive to orient the turbine properly with respect to the wind and also measures wind direction
==__Yaw drive__ - upwind turbines face into the wind; the yaw drives main purpose is to keep the rotor facing into the wind as the wind direction changes. Downwind turbines don’t require a yaw drive, the wind blows the rotor down wind.==

__Yaw motor__ - Powers the yaw drive
=Videos media type="youtube" key="DxOYwWu7Xcc?fs=1" height="385" width="640"= =media type="youtube" key="fNudnI5tzf8?fs=1" height="385" width="480"=

=The best aspects= ==One of the leading things for wind turbines is that wind is a renewable source and wind is 100 percent free. Wind farms require no fuel to run so we can generate electricity without burning natural resources. These wind farms produce no wastes or green house gases that could damage the atmosphere and that would further worsen this problem. Wing farms are a great ways to get energy in remote areas that may have had trouble before. Also wind farms can serve as tourist attractions to some people. According to the U.S. Department of energy in 1990 the wind plants in California offset the emission of carbon dioxide by 2.5 billon pounds it would take around 90 to 175 trees to provide the same air quality. If they are built in farm land it is still possible for things to be grown under them. The wind turbines cost little money to operate.==

=How critics would describe it= ==One of the things against it is that there could be times where there is no wind and there would be no electricity generated. Others might say that these massive wind turbines are ugly and can lower home values near them. They can kill migrating birds, but normally these wind turbines would not be built in the birds normal routes. It is possible for them to affect television reception in near by homes. But, it is most likely for them to be built of on coast lines where the wind is strongest and in rural areas where there is not as many homes. Some people say that there is can be loud noise coming from the blades spinning around and around. The one we have hear at school is not that loud so I don’t see that as being a huge problem. Wind turbines can be expensive to set up, this is where 80 percent of the cost is. Once they are set up they cost very little to maintain. Some of these problems have already been resolved by properly locating these wind farms. Another solution is the energy they produce can be stored if it is not used which will help on days that there is little or no wind.==

=Wind power and the worlds energy supply=

==Currently in the world wind power is not one of the leading suppliers on energy. For one wind power has really not become a topic for discussion on an alternative energy. Wind power because of its high cost to build is out of the question for some countries that don’t have the means to build them. Also it takes time to build these wind farms, but more and more are being built this year. It is estimated that wind power alone could make up 20 percent of our energy supply in the next 20 to 30 years. Another reason is that this topic of alternative energy sources is recent within the last 10 years even still the majority of the population just does not car. The market for wind power has risen considerably over the last several years and will continue to grow the more people realizes that we need to do something and that this problem is not going away. Wind energy is the energy source that is growing the fastest.==

=Helping solve a problem=

==I strongly believe that wind power will contribute to solving the energy crisis that we find ourselves in. It definitely will not make it any worse. The United States installed around 8,500 MW of wind power in 2008. This amount of energy is enough to power around 2 million homes. More wind power has been installed in the united states in the last few years that than the previous 20 years before it. Also in 2008 a total of 27 thousand megawatts were produced through out the world. That right there is enough information to prove that wind power is a great start to solving this energy problem.==

=Doing it on a larger scale=

==It is going to take the cooperation of governments the citizens of the world and private corporations. It is also going to take the cooperation between countries to join together to create wind farms. Citizens need to vote on wind farms to get passed in their areas. Also the government to give grants and tax incentives to those companies you decide to build a wind farm or to those who have enough property to put one in there yard or neighborhood to help power their house and those around them. An example of this was in 1992 congress passed the Energy Policy Act which created tax credits for wind and biomass electricity. The state of California helped do this in the mid 80’s which helped the wind power industry start to boom. Wind farms need public and federal support of they are going to flourish because no one man can do it by him self.==

=Why this technology isn’t used very often and what must be done to change the manner with which it’s used= ==This technology isn’t used as often as it should because it is extremely expensive to build. Wind power is great, it is almost free once the wind farm is constructed but to actually build one costs millions. Therefore it is hard for politicians to push for wind power when they know those of whom disagree with wind power can use the fact that it is so much money in there favor. The wind farms pay themselves back but that’s not before years of debt. Overall in the end wind power saves money but due to there high price to build them often can’t be built.== ==In order to change the manner in which wind power affects the globe relies on society as a whole. Yes, wind power originally costs millions. But yes, wind power pays for itself and eventually saves millions. Wind energy is the future and not many people can say they deny that. It’s free wind, and clean energy. Politicians need to begin making this change and make the correct decision to move to this alternative energy.==

=Quotes=

==“The quickest, cheapest, and best way to start using all this renewable energy is in the production of electricity. In fact we can start right know using solar power, wind power and geothermal power to make electricity for homes and businesses”. – Al Gore== ==“Renewable power, including wind power, is one of the key mitigation technologies and practices currently commercially available for the energy sector.” - David Wratt Wellington Climate change general Manager.== ==“I haven’t come to my conclusions for political reason; I’ve come to my conclusions because I’m convinced that the future of our economy is very much connected to the development of a vibrant industry in alternative and renewable energy” - Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick== ==This is not a problem that will be solved overnight. It will take years to counter act, but we need to really get a jump on it now if we are going to make a difference. Most likely wind power will not be able to solve or energy crisis on its own. It will require the combination of wind power solar power, wind power, as many renewable energy sources as we can come up with. The ignorance of the world population has to stop. Even with the use of renewable resources without the compliance of the world nothing is going to change and we are going to dig ourselves in a hole with no chance of getting out.==