Wind Energy Basics The Kidwind Project

Early “Windmill” in Afghanistan (900AD)

Jacobs Turbine – WinCharger – 1930s – 40s

Smith-Putnam Turbine Vermont, 1940's

Modern Windmills

Orientation Turbines can be categorized into two overarching classes based on the orientation of the rotor Vertical Axis Horizontal Axis

Wacky Designs out there…

Parts of a Wind Turbine

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Types of Electricity Generating Windmills Small (  10 kW) Homes Farms Remote Applications (e.g. small tasks like water pumping) Large (250 kW - 2+MW) Central Station Wind Farms Distributed Power Intermediate ( kW) Village Power Hybrid Systems Distributed Power KidWind Project |

Wind Turbine Perspective Nacelle 56 tons Tower 3 sections Workers Blade 112’ long KidWind Project |

Large Wind Turbines 450’ base to blade Each blade 112’ Span greater than tons total Foundation 20+ feet deep Rated at 1.5 – 5 megawatt Supply at least 350 homes

Yawing – Facing the Wind Active Yaw (medium & large turbines) – Anemometer on nacelle tells controller which way to point rotor into the wind – Yaw drive turns gears to point rotor into wind Passive Yaw (small turbines) – Wind forces alone direct rotor Tail vanes Downwind turbines KidWind Project |

Importance of Wind Speed No other factor is more important to the amount of power available in the wind than the speed of the wind Power is a cubic function of wind speed – V X V X V 20% increase in wind speed means 73% more power Doubling wind speed means 8 times more power KidWind Project |

Lift & Drag Forces The Lift Force is perpendicular to the direction of motion. We want to make this force BIG. The Drag Force is parallel to the direction of motion. We want to make this force small. α = low α = medium <10 degrees α = High Stall!!

Airfoil Shape Just like the wings of an airplane, wind turbine blades use the airfoil shape to create lift and maximize efficiency. The Bernoulli Effect

Why do windmills need to be high in the sky?? Turbulence and friction decrease higher in the atmosphere. Ideal height is around 100 meters (328 feet) Air flow close to the ground has friction, causing turbulence.

Turbulent wind is bad wind Obstacles such as trees and buildings can cause higher areas of turbulence

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Wind Farms

Off-Shore Wind Farms

Middelgrunden

Impacts of Wind Power: Noise Modern turbines are relatively quiet Rule of thumb – stay about 3x hub-height away from houses

Where is the wind? Where are the population centers? Where are the wind farms? How do we get wind energy from the wind farms to the population centers? Transmission Problems

Wind Turbine Blade Challenge Students perform experiments and design different wind turbine blades Use simple wind turbine models Test one variable while holding others constant Record performance with a multimeter or other load device Goals: Produce the most voltage, pump the most water, lift the most weight –Minimize Drag –Maximize LIFT –Harness the POWER of the wind!

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Jobs in the Wind Industry

Construction

Public Relations/Organizing Support KidWind Project |

Operations/M aintenance

Maintenance KidWind Project |

Engineering/ Design

Environmental Impact Assessment

KidWind Project | Wind Power is Fun!