Wind Powered Products Guide
Free energy from the wind
Wind
power is the conversion of wind energy into electricity by using
wind turbines. Wind power currently produces just over 1% of world-wide
electricity use, it accounts for approximately 20% of electricity
use in Denmark, 9% in Spain, and 7% in Germany. Globally, wind power
generation more than quadrupled between 2000 and 2006.
Most modern wind power is generated in the form of electricity
by converting the rotation of turbine blades into electrical current
by means of an electrical generator. In old fashioned windmills,
wind energy is used to turn mechanical machinery to do physical
work, such as crushing grain or pumping water.
Wind power is used in large scale wind farms for national electrical
grids as well as in small individual turbines for providing electricity
to rural residences or grid-isolated locations.
Wind energy is plentiful, renewable, widely distributed, clean,
and reduces toxic atmospheric and greenhouse gas emissions if used
to replace fossil-fuel-derived electricity. The intermittency of
wind seldom creates problems when using wind power at low to moderate
penetration levels.
Wind is the world's fastest growing renewable energy source recently
and this trend is expected to continue with falling costs of wind
energy and the urgent international need to tackle CO2 emissions
to prevent climate change.
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