Wind Turbines!

A wind turbine is a device that converts kinetic energy

from the wind into electrical power.

Why do we need Wind Turbines?

• Wind power helps both combat climate change and reduce reliance on fossil fuels.

Fun Fact!Most wind energy comes from turbines that can be as tall as a 20-story building and have three 200-foot-long (60-meter-long) blades.Smaller turbines erected in a backyard can produce enough electricity for a single home or small business.

Advantages: • Wind energy is friendly to the surrounding environment, as no

fossil fuels are burnt to generate electricity from wind energy. • Wind turbines take up less space than the average power

station.

• Newer technologies are making the extraction of wind energy much more efficient.

• The wind is free, and we are able to cash in on this free source of energy.

• Wind turbines are a great resource to generate energy in remote locations, such as mountain communities and remote countryside.

• Can you think of any more?

Disadvantages• The main disadvantage regarding wind power is down to the

winds unreliability factor. In many areas, the winds strength is too low to support a wind turbine.

• Wind turbines generally produce allot less electricity than the average fossil fuelled power station, requiring multiple wind turbines to be built in order to make an impact.

• Wind turbine construction can be very expensive and costly to surrounding wildlife during the build process.

• NIMBYs – Not In My Back Yard! Many people don’t want the countryside ruined by turbines or don’t want the noise pollution that comes with them.

Fun Fact!The slowly rotating blades can also kill birds and bats, but not nearly as many as cars, power lines, and high-rise buildings do.

Poor Wind Turbine!

People don’t want me

around *sniff* They said I look ugly *sniff* >.<

Cheer up, it’s a Fun Fact!The wind energy industry is booming. Globally, generation more than quadrupled between 2000-2006. At the end of last year, global capacity was over 70,000 megawatts! Wind power is very popular because it has a lot of fans.

Video!

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/wind-farms-pt-1-3/1461.html

Quiz Time!• Can you remember like, anything, like,

at all? Yeah, me too! Let’s test that funky knowledge and get down to the good stuff. Show off to all your friends. Yes, it is I, victor of the geography quiz! Your knowledge of wind turbines is puny before mine! Etc, etc.

Q1• Why do we need Wind Turbines? At least 2

points please.

Q2• Name Three advantages to Wind Turbines.

Q3• Name Three disadvantages to Wind Turbines.

Q4• Which 3 things kill birds and bats more than

wind turbines do?

Q5• What was the global capacity for wind

turbines at the end of last year?

Q6• How tall can wind turbines be?

Q7• How many wind turbines do we need in order

to provide 20% of the UK energy demand?

7 Questions!

• That’s right, 7 questions for the number of blades you could find on three triple-bladed turbines where one had been in a sad and traumatic accident!

See?

Be happy I didn’t have a question for every one of the 231 wind farms in the UK, okay?

Answers!• 1. Wind power helps both combat climate change and reduce

reliance on fossil fuels.• 2. Wind energy is friendly to the surrounding environment, as

no fossil fuels are burnt to generate electricity from wind energy.

• Wind turbines take up less space than the average power station.

• Newer technologies are making the extraction of wind energy much more efficient.

• The wind is free, and we are able to cash in on this free source of energy.

• Wind turbines are a great resource to generate energy in remote locations, such as mountain communities and remote countryside.

Answers!3. The main disadvantage regarding wind power is down to the

winds unreliability factor. In many areas, the winds strength is too low to support a wind turbine.

• Wind turbines generally produce a lot less electricity than the average fossil fuelled power station, requiring multiple wind turbines to be built in order to make an impact.

• Wind turbine construction can be very expensive and costly to surrounding wildlife during the build process.

• NIMBYs – Not In My Back Yard! Many people don’t want the countryside ruined by turbines or don’t want the noise pollution that comes with them.

Answers!4. Cars, power lines, and high-rise buildings5. Over 70,000 megawatts.6. A 20-story building 7. 10,000 wind turbines. The same amount

of energy could be provided by 12 fossil fuel power stations or 6 nuclear power stations.

For those of you who got these last 3 incorrect, SHAME ON YOU. Pay attention to my lovely Fun Facts!!!

What do people think about Wind Turbines?

Olivia, self-proclaimed wind turbine expert, said, ‘It’s that feeling when you drive on holiday and you see a wind turbine and it’s like, Oooooh! A wind Turbine!’

I was also going to include another opinion from another equally valued expert such as Alison Hill of the British Wind Energy Association but then I decided that this expert point of view was all we really needed to summarise this personal and really quite complicated issue.

I thought it would be best to leave the presentation there before I

descended into madness and started spilling complete gibberish. How

considerate of me, I know.I therefore leave you with this amazing

image I found online.

OMJ LOOK THEYRE PLANTS AND THEYRE TURBINES o.O