J+Sams+and+R+Weidner+Energy+Wiki

=Wind Power=

Wind power is when energy from the wind is converted into practical use for things such as electricity, crushing grain, and pumping water. There are many pluses for using wind power for energy. It's very abundant, clean, renewable, and is a great solution for greenhouse gases.Wind power is generally cheap to create energy on small demand but when it comes to creating energy for a large are is can be quite costly.

1. What is the problem at hand?
For wind to work the air needs to be fairly dense, the area has to large and open, and there has to be reasonable wind speeds. Also, there are quite a few external costs. Carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases are released when fossil fuels are burned and may heighten the risk of global warming. Also, they present a risk to wildlife and nature, including but not limited to bats, birds and fish.



2. What is the driving force of the problem?
Wind energy isn't a huge problem, it's mostly used to save energy and prevent pollution in the atmosphere. The main problem is that it's difficult to run a large area on wind. Most places don't have the area or resources for a big wind farm. Also it takes a lot of wind to produce the energy needed in the modern world for a typical home or business.

3. What are people currently doing or not doing to solve the problem?
To solve this problem, every day people who are in possession of large, windy fields are purchasing wind turbines and producing energy. For each kilowatt-hour produced, a tax return will produce 1.9 cents. People are doing as much as they can to use win energy for electricity for homes and such. They use as much wind energy as they can before needing help from alternative sources such as gasoline.

4. **Explain how it works**
Wind energy is a slightly complicated process with many different gadgets and machines working together. It starts with the way the sun heats the earth up in different places sending a convection from the crust to the stratosphere causing wind, mostly higher up at high speeds. You can never tell how much wind will be available at a given time. At times of low winds, farms must use a generator to power the turbines. At times of high winds when there's excess energy they must be able to store it for late uses. Also the turbines must be places in prime location which is the biggest key to success as a wind farmer. Wind is not the only resource require. They also need to consider cost of land, supply of transmission lines, and an are where they won't be harming to much wildlife.

5. Determine the amount of CO2 it produces or inhibits
Wind power emits no CO2 particles directly, but to start up the machinery, some fossil fuels must be used and those produce 0.33 to 0.59 tonnes of CO2 per MWh ([|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_Power#CO2_emissions_and_pollution)]

6. Determine the amount of water it can generate or purify
Wind energy generally does not produce any water in the process other than maybe steam coming off the engines.

7. Highlight the best aspects of it
The best aspect of Wind Power is that it only harvests wind, it doesn't emit any toxic gases into the atmosphere. Also it greatly lowers the pollution that most fuels create in our atmosphere. The space wind farms take up is quite small. They usually fit on the typical farm land and is no problem to the public. It's better than gasoline!

8. Describe how the critics would discuss it
Critics that are in favor of alternative sources of energy from gasoline would say that wind energy is a fantastic concept. It's one of the many ways that we can try to save this planet before we completely destroy it. Animal activists would probably shun this idea due to the danger for flying animals, birds. There are many cases in which a bird get sniped by a turbine and is fatally injured. People living on the coast near wind farms in the ocean would complain about the noise they create. There have been many fights against off shore wind farms int he past.

9. If it doesn't make up much of the world's fuel/energy supply explain why.
Wind Power doesn't make up that much of the world's fuel/energy supply because the actual placement of the turbines disrupts some wildlife habitats. Also, in areas that do not receive as much wind as others may produce less energy. How much wind is blowing and how much energy a turbine can produce is uncontrollable and only mother nature and increase or decrease the amount of wind. Some areas of the world just can't produce enough wind to rely on it as a permanent and primary energy source.

10. Explain how it could help solve some of the problems or contributes to those problems.
Wind energy can do both of these things but more of the solving. I say that because no matter what if it uses energy to work, it will eventually use some sort of pollution or gasoline. It also will harm someone down the line including birds. But the pros overwhelm the cons. It is one solution to having a stupid war over oil wells in foreign countries. Not only will it save lives but it will also prevent countries from losing great sums of money purchasing that oil. It is a permanent source of energy due to the fact that is is a natural force and will be there no matter how much the amount.

11. Explain what it would take to do your thing better or in a larger scale.
To have wind power work better than it does now, the only way would be to have more participants willing to use their land for the turbines. They would have to clear forests out and cut trees down to increase the size of the wind farms. They would also have to build them off the coast of land in the ocean. It would take a lot of turbines to create energy on a large scale and it would take up a lot of space.

12. Explain who uses that technology and why. If it isn't used very much explain that instead.
Wind farms of course are used primarily by wind farmers. The top 3 countries that produce wind as a source of energy, in order, are Germany, USA, and Spain. Some isolated communities have personal wind farms that basically run their homes and businesses. I'm sure if a town or even city has a great location for turbine use, they will take full advantage and use as much energy without gasoline as possible.

13. After learning about it what would you do next to change how its used? why?
After learning about wind farms there's not much i can do to control it or change the mass production of it. I think the main thing that people can change is increasing the amount of wind farms or even another healthy alternative energy source. The only problem with wind farm is, other than harming birds, the fact that nature can't be controlled and nobody will be able to tell the earth how much wind to produce.