1. Energy From Wind
Power the Future A Field Trip Program about Climate Change and Alternative Energy Accompanying Slideshow
This slideshow is meant to accompany the Power the Future field trip program. Please use the images and the accompanying script to prepare your students for their field trip to the Sciencenter where they will be working with experimental windmills
Credits
This project is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services
Copyright 2010, Sciencenter, Ithaca, NY.

2. These sail boats use energy from the wind to move them across the water. There is a lot of energy in the wind!

3. Wind surfing and kite boarding are other fun ways that we capture energy from the wind.
(Photo: Windsurfing and kite boarding on the Columbia River, Oregon)

4. People also use energy from the wind to do work.
These windmills are over a hundred years old and were designed to catch energy from the wind to crush grain. As the large blades move in the wind a big device moves up and down and crushes the grain inside.
(Photo: Wind mills of Alcázar de San Juan)

5. Windmills have many different shapes and can be made of out many different materials, like this wooden windmill in Finland.
(Photo: A classic windmill in Helsinki, Finland)

6. Windmills can also be used to do other types of work like bringing water up from the ground. This small windmill in Iowa is connected to a hand pump, as the blades spin in the wind energy helps bring up ground or well water.
(Photo: An active water pumping windmill in Iowa)

7. Here you can see the water pump underneath the windmill
(Photo: water pump located underneath and powered by a windmill in Iowa)

8. More recently, scientists and engineers have created wind turbines, which work like windmills except the energy from the wind is converted to electricity. The electricity can then be used to power our homes or businesses.
(Photo: The Brazos Wind Farm, also known as the Green Mountain Energy Wind Farm, near Fluvanna, Texas (2004))

9. These modern wind turbines are huge
These modern wind turbines are huge! This is a picture of one of the blades for the turbine. It’s the length of 4 trucks!
(Photo: Wind turbine blade on Interstate 35 near Elm Mott, Texas)

10. People also put wind turbines out in the ocean where there is a lot of wind, these are call off shore wind turbines because they are located away from the shore.
(Photo: Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, UK, Scroby Sands wind farm seen from the beach)

11. Here is a close up of an off shore wind turbine
(Photo: Newly constructed windmills, on the Belgian part of the North Sea. The windmills are 184 m above the sea bottom.)

12. Scientists and engineers are always looking to improve the efficiency of wind turbines. They are still developing new designs and technology for how to capture power and electricity from the wind. This is a vertical wind turbine.
(Photo: World highest Darrieus wind generator, Gaspé peninsula, Quebec, Canada)

13. There are many different ways to design blades for wind mills and wind turbines. Before coming to the Sciencenter think about how you will design yours!