Skip to Main Content
Living Green: The Missing Manual
book

Living Green: The Missing Manual

by Nancy Conner
August 2009
Beginner to intermediate content levelBeginner to intermediate
320 pages
11h 56m
English
O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Content preview from Living Green: The Missing Manual

Wind Energy

Harnessing the power of the wind is nothing new—people have been doing it for more than a thousand years. Ninth-century Persians used windmills to pump water and grind grain, and twelfth-century Europeans built the kind of windmills you see in the Netherlands today. These ancient windmills used rotating blades or sails to convert wind into mechanical energy that powered machines.

Modern wind generators are similar: The wind turns the blades of a turbine, which spins a shaft that drives a generator, which produces electricity. These turbines, which are usually on top of towers at least 150 feet tall, can power individual homes or buildings (Hydro power for homes) or they can be grouped into wind farms (sometimes called wind power plants) and supply energy to a power grid. In such a farm, clusters of turbines are positioned to catch the site's prevailing wind, preferably one that's strong and steady year round, averaging more than 10 miles per hour. You'll find wind farms in fields, on ridges, even at sea.

image with no caption

Advantages

Wind energy is clean, which means it generates electricity without emitting any greenhouse gases, particulates, or other pollutants. It's renewable since it doesn't rely on a finite resource like oil, coal, or natural gas. And that points to another advantage: operating cost. Conventional power plants have to buy the fuel they use to generate electricity, whereas ...

Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.
Start your free trial

You might also like

Lifescale

Lifescale

Brian Solis
Green Energy to Sustainability: Strategies for Global Industries

Green Energy to Sustainability: Strategies for Global Industries

Alain A. Vertes, Nasib Qureshi, Hans P. Blaschek, Hideaki Yukawa
Step into the Metaverse

Step into the Metaverse

Mark van Rijmenam

Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9780596806460Errata Page