Wind power

Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into useful form energy, such as using wind turbines to make electricity, wind mills for mechanical power, wind pumps for pumping water or drainage.

We have used wind as an energy source for a long time, The Babylonians and Chinese were using wind power to pump water for irrigating corps 4000 yrs ago, and sailing boats were around long before that. Wind power was used in middle ages, in Europe, to grind corn.

The sun heats our atmosphere unevenly, so some patches become warmer than others. These warm patches of air rise, other air blows in to replace them and we feel a wind blowing…. We can use the energy in the wind by building tall tower, with a large propeller on the top.. The wind blows the propeller around, which turns generator produce electricity. We tend to build many of these towers together, to make a “wind Farm” and produce more electricity. The more towers, the more wind, and the larger the propellers, the more electricity we can make. 

At the end of 2009, worldwide nameplate capacity of wind powered generators was 159 GW Energy production was 340 TWh , which is about 2% of worldwide electricity usage , and has doubled in the past 3yrs. Several countries  have achieved  relatively high levels of  wind power penetration, such as 20% of stationary electricity production in Denmark , 14% in Ireland and Portugal , 11% in Spain , and 8% in Germany in 2009 As of may 2009 , 80 countries around the world are using wind power on a commercial basis.