By: Killian Jenkins , Lily Bush, Brock Haft Period 6

Wind Power

• The harnessing of wind energy is not a modern idea, though modern adaptations have made it far more useable in present times.

• The first use of wind power was not physically understood by those who used it, but the idea of what it could accomplish was used to create Sails for ships creating a massive jump in world transportation and exploration.

• The first windmills were however invented in Persia around 500-900 A.D. A vertical axis type of windmill was created to help pump water from the local rivers, and also to grind wheat and other grains for meal and flour.

• Although China has also claimed that windmills were born in their country, it is documented that the first Chinese windmill was created in 1219 by Yehlu Chhu-Tshai

History of Wind Power1000 B.C.-1300 A.D.

First Persian Windmill

• The windmill first came to the west, in a new design, the horizontal axis design. It is assumed the new design came from water wheel technologies of the time that also were designed on the horizontal axis.

• Change in design resulted in a cheaper windmill and the ability to produce twice as much energy. Whereas vertical axis windmills had needed a protection wall to block indirect winds. Horizontal axis windmills were much more versatile and required no protection wall.

• The first vertical mills were called Postmills due to the design which consisted of a post or tower on which four blades were attached.

• The second advancement of mills came in 1390 , the Dutch had created the Towermill which was essentially a Postmill, affixed to a taller tower, that could be rotated with the wind to capture more of the wind. Also the blades could be collapsed to avoid damage in high speed winds.

• During the next 500 years, he windmills had developed all essential ingredients for a modern windmill, and only needed future technologies to improve.

History of Wind Power1300 A.D. – 1875 A.D.

POSTMILL Towermill

History of Wind Power 1875 A.D. – Present

• By 1888 electricity power mills had been developed, and the classic wind mill was obsolete.

• The first electric powering wind mill was created by Charles F. Brush in Cleveland, Ohio. It was a postmill with a 17 meter rotor, and “picket fence” blades.

• Despite this advancement, the mill only produced 12 Kilowatts of energy, compared to modern mills that can produce up to 100 Kilowatts of similar size.

• The next development of the windmill came with Dane Poul La Cour who incorporated older airfoil designs, along with the best ideas of European windmills to create an output of up to 25 Kilowatts of energy.

• Development of bulk windmills began in earnest again during 1931 in Russia, the project called Balaclava and was in use for two years producing 200,000 kWh of energy. This project proved large scales windmills could be produced, but failed to be economically sound.

• The largest windmill constructed in its time the Smith-Putnam Windmill had a diameter of 175 feet, just recently topped by the 126 meter Enercon E126. Though it only ever produced 1.25 Megawatts a year of power. Immense at the time, and broke shortly after due to strains on the metal blades.

Specific Uses • Modern windmills are being used to generate electricity much

like coal plants. However small scale windmills are still being used to pump water, and grind grains for farmers.

• We use the windmills power just like everyday electricity, the only difference is in how we produce that power.

• Windmills rotate in winds which turn the blades, powering a generator that produces power from kinetic energy which is then converted into useable energy which can be sent to the grid and used in homes just like regular electricity.

• Water pumping with windmills is good for small farms and was used more in the early 1900’s for small acreage farming that was done mostly by hand.

• It is extremely useful, but hard to create in bulk at a cheap price, which remains the only restraint for the usefulness of this power

•

Changes of Wind Power• During it’s earliest development windmills were used to

automate the grinding of grain, and pump water from local rivers. The windmills were the first automatic machines of the human age.

• In Europe several advancements were made to the mills and created the Post mill and Tower mill as described earlier.

• A small boom in small windmills grew in the West, especially in America. Where small farmers bought cheap and efficient steel mills to pump water to their fields or from the ground. However after the depression windmill development slumped again.

• In 1888 interest was sparked in windmills with the development of an electric producing windmill. Then many future improvements were made creating many of the designs we see in our windmills today.

Energy Costs • The average cost per kilowatt-hour for wind power is currently

around $0.081 or $0.0000225 per Kilojoules.• Unfortunately wind power is currently very ineffective if you

calculate costs and the output that windmills usually operate. • Comparatively you can see how cheap coal and other types of

fuel are, costing around $0.019 per kilowatt-hour. • Maintenance, must be regularly maintained as the machine

must be tested frequently to test the stresses on the windmill. Metal will weaken over time and towers can collapse. In high winds damage is often accrued and can damage the internal as well as external aspects of the wind mill.

• Costs for maintenance follow a similar trend. For the first years of the turbines life, costs for operation and maintenance stay around 10-15% of the total costs per kilowatt-hour. However about 8 to 10 years in the future, and costs usually skyrocket to 20-35% of the total costs per kilowatt-hour.

Wind is not very efficient as an energy provider. As stated before it costs around 0.081 dollars to produce whereas coal runs around 0.019 dollars per kilowatt-hour.

Wind operates at a 40% maximum production level. Whereas coal or other fossil fuels can run around 95% constantly.

This makes wind very inefficient at being a total solution for our dependency on fossil fuels. With high maintenance costs later in its life, and a relatively short lifespan windmills are expensive to start with and have a short longevity.

One example of this that this inefficiency can still work however is demonstrated by the new wind turbines added to Buffalo Mountain, expanded this site's capacity to 29 megawatts of generation, enough power to support 3780 homes. These turbines have a capacity of 1.8 megawatts each. They are 260 feet tall with blades that are 135 feet long and only need 10mph winds to generate electricity, 25mph winds to reach full capacity

However though they require only slow wind speeds, the wind only blows at the necessary speeds 10% of the time resulting in very low efficiency no matter how advanced a scientist might build it. The wind must blow for anything to work.

Efficiency of this Wind Energy

Location of Windmills

Wind turbines are normally located on mountain ranges and open valleys

Areas in the United States that would work well are The Rocky Mountains and the Appalachian Mountains.

At sea locations as well, strong ocean winds can create much more efficient windmills. Even out it deep sea locations.

Often windmills are placed just beyond a pass in the mountain where wind is tunneled through at high speeds, these too are good building sites for windmills

Positive Effects on the EnvironmentUsing wind as a source of power reduces CO2

emissions by a large marginThe MGE wind farm prevents the annual production

of 18,880 tons of CO2. Wind farms also reduce the output of SO2. The MGE

wind farm cuts SO2 emissions by 119 tons per year. Wind is also a renewable resource because of the

Earth's natural heating and cooling everyday.Windmills can be taken up or down from the

environment with little effect on the local system. Wind is constant we will never lose winds, and often

winds persist on cloudy days or sunny days where as solar is dependent on cloud cover. High wind areas usually have an at least a small presence of wind to power the generators.

Negative Effects of Windmills

Most cannot be turned on and off as the wind dies and rises, and the quick ramping up and down of those that can be would actually increase their output of pollution and carbon dioxide. So when the wind is blowing just right for the turbines, the power they generate is usually a surplus and sold to other countries at an extremely discounted price, or the turbines are simply shut off.

In high winds, the turbines must be stopped because they are easily damaged. Build-up of dead bugs has been shown to halve the maximum power generated by a wind turbine, reducing the average power generated by 25% and more. 

Build-up of salt on off-shore turbine blades similarly has been shown to reduce the power generated by 20%-30%

Aesthetics: Wind farms are generally not considered pleasing to the eye. At this point, environmental concerns are still remote enough that this is an important point.

Animals: There are a number of claims that wind turbines are a threat to migratory birds. Whether they really are or not is unclear.

Negative Effects of Windmills Space: Wind farms do take a lot of space. Cost: Wind turbines are fairly expensive to

manufacture and assemble and each one does not provide a huge amount of power, thus the cost/power ratio for oil and fossil fuels is still much lower.

Wind depletion: there is a theory that taking energy out of the wind could be detrimental in some way. Just like damming a river takes energy from the river, "damming" the wind takes energy from the wind – though any experiment of this being proven is still to come

PLANS FOR FUTURE WIND POWER

Larger windmills like the Enercon E-126 can produce large sums of energy each year and future windmills more advanced that the Enercon are likely to emerge.

Along with new ways to incorporate wind technologies atop structures or as art is also a new idea being posed in cities like San Diego or other coastal towns that receive a lot of wind.

Besides advanced wind turbines, photovoltaic systems that convert solar energy into electricity and urban designs that take full advantage of sunlight and breezes also can put a dent in greenhouse gas emissions by reducing fossil fuel combustion needed to generate power.

Why Should we Use it?• It is a clean source of energy one of the cleanest, and in my

opinion it is somewhat aesthetically pleasing.

• You don’t have to buy wind much like solar or geothermal energy. Wind is free and renewable which is the main goal behind wind power.

• It doesn’t expel a lot of greenhouse gases those that are expelled are from production of the mill itself only.

• There will never be a shortage of wind at least not that we know of.

• It gives enough power to supply cities in large quantities. The future of windmills are growing as floating windmills, water

mills, and other types of windmills are produced, we could see a global shift from fossil fuel to mixed solar and wind power.

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