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Abstract
Despite common characterizations of modern wind energy technology as mature, there remains a persistent disconnect between the vast global wind energy resource, which is 20 times greater than total global power consumption and the limited penetration of existing wind energy technologies as a means for electricity generation worldwide, this report will explore the process of creating a simple miniature wind turbine made out of used materials to demonstrate how wind turbines on a larger scale operate, how they harvest energy and the advantage of using wind energy as an alternative to burning coal, this report will serve as an different approach to wind energy harvesting that has the potential to resolve the disconnect between the vast global wind energy resource.
WORLD COAL DEPOSITS (GREY). [1]
WORLD WIND SPEEDS AT 80 M OVER LAND. [2]
PURPOSE
The purpose of this experiment is to generate electrical energy from a renewable power source In this case wind, present the harvesting of wind energy as an alternative to burning coal it also to create relevant talks about fast tracking the installations of wind farms and motivating a concerted effort in basic and applied research in this area as it is the key to saving our planet. [3]
Introduction
Wind is simple air in motion. It is caused by the uneven heating of the earth’s surface by the sun, since the earth’s surface is made of very different types of land and water, it absorbs the suns heat at different rates. [4]
During the day, the air above the land heats up more quickly than the air over water. The warm air over the land expands and rises, and the heavier, cooler air rushes in to take its place, creating winds. At night the winds are reversed because the air cools more rapidly over land than over water.
In the same way, the large atmospheric winds that circle the earth are created because the land near the earth’s equator is heated more by the sun than the land near the north and south poles.
Today, wind energy is mainly used to generate electricity. Wind is called a renewable energy source because the wind will blow as long as the sun shines.
ADVANTAGES OF WIND ENERGY:
Wind power is a clean energy source that can be relied on for the long-term future. A wind turbine creates reliable, cost – effective, pollution free energy. It is affordable, clean and sustainable, one wind turbine can be sufficient to generate energy for a household. [5]
Because wind is a source of energy which is non – polluting and renewable, wind turbines create power without using fossil fuels, without producing greenhouse gases or radioactive or toxic waste.
3. Design
3.1 Experimental Equipment
- DC motor
- LED
- Electrical wires
- Wood plank
- Plastic propeller’s
3.2 Solution to speed up the use of wind energy
To speed up the installations of wind turbines, technology development is focused on large arrays of small wind turbines that can harvest wind energy at low altitudes by using new concepts of biology – inspired engineering, this approach dramatically extends the reach of wind energy as smaller wind turbines can be installed in many places that larger systems cannot, especially in built environments. Moreover, they have lower visual acoustic and radar signatures, and they may pose significantly less risk to birds and bats.[6]
These features can be leveraged to attain cultural acceptance and rapid adoption of this new technology, thereby enabling significantly faster achievement of state and national renewable energy targets than with existing technology alone.
[8] R.Pallabazzer and A.A. Gabow “wind resources of Somalia” solar energy 46 (5): 313-322.1991.
3.6 Safety
- Wear safety goggles and gloves to protect yourself from flying projectiles.
- When using the hammer and nails to mount the wood planks ensure that you are skilled enough to use these tools to avoid injury.
- Ensure your workbench is clear of unnecessary equipment and ensure that your workstation has no water as this can be a hazard when working with electrical wires 4. Procedure
- Mount the two blade propellers to the motor.
- Fit the motor into a plank, which will serve as the tower
- Mount the turbine tower to another flat plank which will act as the base of the wind turbine.
- Connect two wires to the motor which will later be connected to the L.E.D.
- Connect the ends of the two wires that are connected to the motor and connect them to the LED.
- Apply wind to the front of the blade propellers, the motor will convert the winds kinetic energy into electricity which will turn on the L.E.D. 5. Discussion of results
Despite the global availability of wind resources and the practicality of creating a wind turbine and the advantages of harvesting and utilizing wind energy as portrayed by the experiment, wind energy technology has thus far had only a modest impact on power generation worldwide only 4 countries currently generate more than 10 percent of their electricity from wind, all of them in Europe.
Perhaps most poignant is the example of developing countries such as Somalia and Malawi, which have excellent wind resources and yet still surfer some of the lowest household electrification rates in the world. [7/8]
To what can we ascribe this dichotomy between the abundance of wind energy resources and the limited adoption of existing wind energy technologies? Many economic, infrastructural, regulatory and cultural issues contribute.
However, a root cause is the extant paradigm of wind energy generation, one that relies on power generation by a few, increasingly large wind conversion machines, this centralized approach to power generation arose following the industrial revolution as a consequence of the need to process highly localized fossil fuel sources.
The trend has been exacerbated by conventional propeller-style wind turbines (i.e. horizontal-axis wind turbines or HAWT’s), which must be spaced far apart in order to avoid aerodynamic interference and fatigue loading caused by interactions with the wakes of adjacent turbines. This requirement has forced wind energy systems away from high energy demand population centers and toward remote locations including, more recently, offshore sites. It has also necessitated the implementation of very large wind turbines so that the inefficiency of the wind farm as a whole can be mitigated by accessing the greater wind resources available at high altitudes.
However, by limiting ourselves to this approach in the harvesting of wind energy, we need forfeited key advantages and opportunities afforded globally distributed energy source like the wind:
- The ability to generate energy close to its point of consumption;
- The functional versatility inherent in energy conversion devices that can scale from kilowatts to megawatts
- Access in rural communities and the developing world, where local electricity generation can be especially valuable in the absence of a reliable centralized power grid and
- Potentially lower barriers to adoption of distributed wind energy technologies versus the status quo.to be sure, economies of scale have been demonstrated to favor larger wind turbine components.
