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Wind Energy History

Wind Energy History

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Godfrey Emilio
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43 views1 page

Wind Energy History

Wind Energy History

Uploaded by

Godfrey Emilio
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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How Wind Energy Started

Wind power is one of the fastest-growing renewable energy technologies. Usage is on


the rise worldwide, in part because costs are falling. Global installed wind-generation
capacity onshore and offshore has increased by a factor of almost 75 in the past two
decades, jumping from 7.5 gigawatts (GW) in 1997 to some 564 GW by 2018, according
to IRENA's latest data. Production of wind electricity doubled between 2009 and 2013,
and in 2016 wind energy accounted for 16% of the electricity generated by renewables.
Many parts of the world have strong wind speeds, but the best locations for generating
wind power are sometimes remote ones. Offshore wind power offers tremendous
potential.
Wind turbines first emerged more than a century ago. Following the invention of the
electric generator in the 1830s, engineers started attempting to harness wind energy to
produce electricity. Wind power generation took place in the United Kingdom and the
United States in 1887 and 1888, but modern wind power is considered to have been
first developed in Denmark, where horizontal-axis wind turbines were built in 1891 and
a 22.8-metre wind turbine began operation in 1897.
Wind is used to produce electricity using the kinetic energy created by air in motion.
This is transformed into electrical energy using wind turbines or wind energy conversion
systems. Wind first hits a turbine’s blades, causing them to rotate and turn the turbine
connected to them. That changes the kinetic energy to rotational energy, by moving a
shaft which is connected to a generator, and thereby producing electrical energy
through electromagnetism.
The amount of power that can be harvested from wind depends on the size of the
turbine and the length of its blades. The output is proportional to the dimensions of the
rotor and to the cube of the wind speed. Theoretically, when wind speed doubles, wind
power potential increases by a factor of eight.
Wind-turbine capacity has increased over time. In 1985, typical turbines had a rated
capacity of 0.05 megawatts (MW) and a rotor diameter of 15 metres. Today’s new wind
power projects have turbine capacities of about 2 MW onshore and 3–5 MW offshore.
Commercially available wind turbines have reached 8 MW capacity, with rotor
diameters of up to 164 metres. The average capacity of wind turbines increased from
1.6 MW in 2009 to 2 MW in 2014.

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