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We Give Books- The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind 2011

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Movie Trailer: The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

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Movie Trailer: The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

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The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind | Offical Trailer [HD] | Netflix

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Wind power is the nation's largest source of renewable energy, with wind turbines installed in all 50 states supplying more than 10% of total U.S electricity and large percentages of most states' energy needs.

Keep reading to learn:

How wind energy works

How turbines work

The benefits and impacts of wind energy

Where wind turbines are used-on land, in water, and for smaller needs (like farms or islands).

How Does Wind Create Power?

Wind power or wind energy is a form of renewable energy that harnesses the power of the wind to generate electricity. It involves using wind turbines to convert the turning motion of blades, pushed by moving air (kinetic energy) into electrical energy (electricity). This requires certain technologies, such as a generator that sits at the top of a tower, behind the blades, in the head (nacelle) of a wind turbine.

This aerial view shows how a group of wind turbines, which can be part of a wind power plant or wind farm, make electricity. The electricity created can either provide power to specific needs (like a wind turbine powering a streetlight or isolated farm) or contribute to the electric grid, which then powers homes, businesses, and schools with the help of transmission and distribution cables (or power lines).

How Does a Wind Turbine Work?

Wind blowing above the ground spins the blades attached to the top of a wind turbine tower. Moving air rotates a wind turbine's blades. That turning motion spins a generator just downwind from the blades (or rotor) in the nacelle, which also stores all the other working parts of a turbine. The generator produces electricity.

View the wind turbine animation to see how a wind turbine works or take a look inside.

A typical 2.8-megawatt (MW) utility-scale wind turbine could produce enough electricity to power 100,000 American homes. And wind turbines are growing taller; the bigger, the more energy they may be able to produce. New designs for blades help wind turbines generate more power and address other issues, such as material use, recyclability, or noise.

Windmills, sometimes confused with wind turbines, traditionally use the power of wind to turn blades that then rotate a grinding stone, rather than a generator, to pulverize grains into powder, like wheat into flour for baking.

Learn more about how wind turbines work on the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Wind Energy Technologies Office website.

Why Should We Use Wind Energy?

There are many important reasons we should use wind energy.

It is a renewable energy source, meaning we can keep creating energy as long as wind blows. Improvements to turbines help them become more efficient, providing clean and reliable energy to the grid, homeowners, or communities even in regions that are less windy.

Wind energy is also a form of clean energy, meaning wind turbines do not produce greenhouse gas emissions, like carbon dioxide, which means less pollution going into the air, oceans, and environment that can cause health problems or harm the environment.

Wind energy can be used in many places, including isolated or remote areas, like islands, that are not able to access the utility grid for power. Wind farms can be installed both on land and offshore, taking advantage of wind currents across the United States and along its coastlines.

There are also financial benefits and economic advantages to installing wind energy. It has a low cost of energy (cost to produce while operating), and wind turbines can help homeowners and communities reduce utility bills, benefit from tax credits and financial incentives, create jobs, and even profit from selling extra energy a turbine on their land might make.

The U.S. Department of Energy's invests in wind energy research, development, demonstration, and deployment activities that enable and accelerate the innovations needed to advance offshore, land-based, and distributed wind energy systems; reduce the cost; drive deployment in an environmentally conscious manner; and facilitate integration with the electric grid.

What Are the Impacts of Wind Energy?

Wind energy has very few disadvantages.

Most concerns that impact social acceptance of wind energy revolve around how wind farms interact with society, such as location (including property value effects and land use), health and safety, the environment and wildlife, local communities, radar interference, and the economy or finances.

Although wind energy does not produce emissions, it is important to consider how wind turbines can coexist with the environment. In addition to identifying the best location, researchers:

To mitigate the potential impact to communities, there are a number of ongoing efforts to work with local communities to better understand their priorities and address these concerns.

Human impacts can be quite small to begin with. For example, wind turbines:

And turbines that are located far offshore can have even fewer human impacts while generating large amounts of electricity.

What Are the Different Types and Applications of Wind Energy?

Wind turbines provide electricity that can either be used at the site where it's generated or transferred to the electrical grid. Typically, the size of a turbine determines how much energy it can produce, although technology is improving to increase turbines' efficiency.

The term "distributed wind energy" (sometimes called "onsite wind energy") refers to turbines installed locally to meet nearby energy needs. Distributed wind energy installations are typically used by a community, company, utility, or homeowner to power their specific needs.

The term "utility-scale" refers to typically large turbines installed either on land or in water that are used to generate large amounts of electricity to feed into the three major electrical grids in the United States (Eastern, Western, and Texas's grid).

Regardless of size, wind energy projects connected to the electrical grid require utility approvals and sometimes grid impact studies before construction can begin, along with other permitting and zoning requirements and regulations.

Plants that combine multiple forms of energy are called hybrid power plants. For example, wind turbines and solar power technologies, as well as energy storage devices, can complement each other in what is commonly known as hybrid renewable energy systems. These systems combine different renewable energy sources to enhance overall efficiency, reliability, and energy output. The combination of wind and solar power is one of the most popular hybrid configurations.

Read a summary below or learn more about the three kinds of wind energy and our guides.

Distributed wind energy describes wind energy projects that serve on-site energy demand. As such, distributed wind turbines can generate on-site electricity for homes, schools, businesses, and farms. Sometimes distributed wind projects support local electricity networks, which are often called "microgrids." They can help cut down on electricity use and, in some cases, can provide all the power for homes and other structures that are off the grid. Distributed wind turbines can also work together with other technologies like solar panels, storage, and power converters to provide power.

Distributed wind energy installations are defined by how they are applied (to serve on-site energy demand) rather than by turbine size. However, turbines used for distributed applications are typically smaller than 20 megawatts. Distributed wind turbines installed near homes are usually between 1 and 10 kilowatts, but they can be significantly bigger. Individual or small clusters of megawatt-scale wind turbines can be used to power commercial and industrial facilities, agricultural uses (farms or ranches), community facilities (such as schools, office buildings, or part of a campus), public campuses (such as a college or hospital), and isolated grids (such as small island, remote, or tribal communities). Read 10 things you didn't know about distributed wind energy.

Learn how wind power can provide you with energy, how to install a wind turbine on your land, the details of small community or large community wind power projects, and how community agreements can benefit those living near wind farms.

Land-based, utility-scale wind energy projects use highly efficient, state-of-the-art wind turbines that generate cost-competitive electricity at power-plant scales. They can be owned and run by a utility company that then sells the power the plant makes to users, like homeowners, who connect to the electrical grid. Read 10 things you didn't know about land-based wind energy.

These projects use large, land-based turbines that can have blade rotors measuring more than 75 meters in diameter, which is about the size of an average Ferris wheel. The rotors are installed on towers that can be taller than the Statue of Liberty.

Because of their size and the scale of the installations, utility-scale wind turbines require environmental, utility, governmental, and public coordination and they are regulated in their location, distance from nearby infrastructure (called "setback"), and other health, safety, and environmental aspects.

Offshore wind energy, the newest application for wind energy, refers to utility-scale wind energy projects that capture wind resources over bodies of water. Read 10 things you didn't know about offshore wind energy.

In water depths less than 60 meters, offshore wind turbines can be fixed directly to the bottom of the ocean, known as fixed-bottom offshore wind turbines, using foundations that can be different shapes and installed in different ways, like monopiles-single stems on which a turbine tower is attached, pictured, that are pounded into the seafloor by pile drivers.

As the newest application of wind energy, the industry, academics, government, and other stakeholders are working together to establish best practices, safety standards, technologies, marine wildlife impacts, ocean co-use (such as coordinating with fishing industries), and other aspects these water-based wind farms.

In water depths greater than 60 meters, floating offshore wind turbines are needed, which are tethered to the seafloor with long mooring lines and anchors, like boats moored in a harbor. There are several different kinds of floating offshore wind turbines, and research continues to investigate the best way to design, build, and situate these turbines in the ocean. Researchers are also looking into the potential to harness winds blowing in the middle of large lakes, like the U.S. Great Lakes, with offshore wind turbines.

Offshore wind turbines have different regulations and must consider impacts to wildlife and the environment, skylines (called "viewshed"), other uses of the ocean space (such as fishing). Because they are more remote, these turbines can be taller than land-based turbines, meaning they have the potential to harness more energy from the strong winds blowing off U.S. coastlines, which can then power offshore activities or be sent to shore via underwater cables to power homes, schools, and other electric needs.
Learn more about wind energy basics on the Wind Energy Technologies Office website. Sign up for the WINDExchange newsletter to get the latest in wind energy research, development, deployment, and more.

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Wind power is the nation's largest source of renewable energy, with wind turbines installed in all 50 states supplying more than 10% of total U.S electricity and large percentages of most states' energy needs.

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Difference between Windmills and Wind Turbines Text

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Difference between Windmills and Wind Turbines Text

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As the wind blows, so too do the vanes of windmills and wind turbines. These massive vaned machines have been around for over 1,000 years, with the first windmills appearing in Persia around 800 C.E.

These early windmills were used for exactly what their name implies - they were mills run by wind. Wind would spin the vanes, or blades, of the windmill, rotating a center shaft, which would then spin a grain mill, usually made of large, flat stones, to produce flour and other grain products. These windmills served another vital purpose too - pumping water to cities and houses. Rather than spinning a grain mill, the rotation of the windmill could be used to drive a pump.

While windmills have been around for ages, wind turbines have only been around since roughly 1888, when the first known wind turbine created for electricity production in the U.S. was built by inventor Charles Brush to create electricity for his mansion in Ohio. Wind turbines are used to generate electricity from the spinning of the blades, rather than simply converting that spinning energy into more mechanical work, such as turning a mill or pumping water.

"A wind turbine in the United States is around 280 feet (85 meters) tall, whereas the older windmill typically wouldn't top 80 feet (24 meters)," says James Herzing, engineer and award-winning host of the Unprofessional Engineering podcast, in an email interview. "The size of the sails or blades is another big difference. Windmills are traditionally measured by wheel diameter, and it isn't uncommon to see an 8-foot (2-meter) windmill, where 8 feet is measured across the blades. Wind turbines, on the other hand, can have a single blade well over 100 feet (30 meters)."

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What's the Difference Between a Windmill and a Wind Turbine?

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As the wind blows, so too do the vanes of windmills and wind turbines. These massive vaned machines have been around for over 1,000 years, with the first windmills appearing in Persia around 800 C.E. These early windmills were used for exactly what their name implies - they were mills run by wind.

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Wind Turbine Working Model | School Projects

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Easy DIY wind turbine | Light Wind - Science Snack activity

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Wind Turbine Model (Cardboard) | ThinkTac

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How to make working model of a wind turbine from cardboard | school project

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How does a wind turbine work? - Sustainability for kids Part 2 | Vestas

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Wind turbines work on a simple principle: instead of using electricity to make wind-like a fan-wind turbines use wind to make electricity. Wind turns the propeller-like blades of a turbine around a rotor, which spins a generator, which creates electricity.

Wind is a form of solar energy caused by a combination of three concurrent events:

1. The sun unevenly heating the atmosphere

2. Irregularities of the earth's surface

3. The rotation of the earth.

Wind flow patterns and speeds vary greatly across the United States and are modified by bodies of water, vegetation, and differences in terrain. Humans use this wind flow, or motion energy, for many purposes: sailing, flying a kite, and even generating electricity.

The terms "wind energy" and "wind power" both describe the process by which the wind is used to generate mechanical power or electricity. This mechanical power can be used for specific tasks (such as grinding grain or pumping water) or a generator can convert this mechanical power into electricity.

A wind turbine turns wind energy into electricity using the aerodynamic force from the rotor blades, which work like an airplane wing or helicopter rotor blade. When wind flows across the blade, the air pressure on one side of the blade decreases. The difference in air pressure across the two sides of the blade creates both lift and drag. The force of the lift is stronger than the drag and this causes the rotor to spin. The rotor connects to the generator, either directly (if it's a direct drive turbine) or through a shaft and a series of gears (a gearbox) that speed up the rotation and allow for a physically smaller generator. This translation of aerodynamic force to rotation of a generator creates electricity.

Types of Wind Turbines

The majority of wind turbines fall into two basic types:

Wind turbines can be built on land or offshore in large bodies of water like oceans and lakes. The U.S. Department of Energy is currently funding projects to facilitate offshore wind deployment in U.S. waters.

Applications of Wind Turbines

Modern wind turbines can be categorized by where they are installed and how they are connected to the grid:

Distributed Wind

When wind turbines of any size are installed on the "customer" side of the electric meter, or are installed at or near the place where the energy they produce will be used, they're called "distributed wind.

Many turbines used in distributed applications are small wind turbines. Single small wind turbines-below 100 kilowatts-are typically used for residential, agricultural, and small commercial and industrial applications.

Small turbines can be used in hybrid energy systems with other distributed energy resources, such as microgrids powered by diesel generators, batteries, and photovoltaics.

These systems are called hybrid wind systems and are typically used in remote, off-grid locations( where a connection to the utility grid is not available) and are becoming more common in grid-connected applications for resiliency.

Learn more about distributed wind from the Distributed Wind Animation or read about what the Wind Energy Technologies Office is doing to support the deployment of distributed wind systems for homes, businesses, farms, and community wind projects.

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Wind turbines work on a simple principle: instead of using electricity to make wind-like a fan-wind turbines use wind to make electricity. Wind turns the propeller-like blades of a turbine around a rotor, which spins a generator, which creates electricity.

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National Renewable Energy Laboratory - NREL

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The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer

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Visit A Giant Wind Turbine on a Wind Farm! | Caitie's Classroom Field Trip | Science For Kids

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Kids learn about wind energy and how this renewable power can help the environment. Teach students about turbines that generate electricity from wind.

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How Do Elevators Work | How Stuff Works | How Devices Work in 3D | Science For Kids

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Wind power has been around for a long time. You've probably seen windmills on farms. When the wind turns the blades of a windmill, it spins a turbine inside a small generator to produce electricity, just like a coal generating station.

A windmill on a farm can make only a small amount of electricity, enough to power a few farm machines. To make enough electricity to serve lots of people, utility companies build wind farms with a large number of wind turbines.

Wind farms are built in flat, open areas where the wind blows at least 14 miles per hour.

They sure are big!

Wind turbines used for large-scale wind farms come in various sizes, but are usually approximately 13 feet wide at the base, and between 230 and 265 feet tall at the hub. With one of the blades in the upright position, the total height is approximately 406 feet.

How many wind turbines do you need to have a wind farm?

Wind farms can have as few as five wind turbines or as many as 150. One of the largest wind farms in the U.S. is in Altamont Pass, California. It has more than 4,800 wind turbines.

Alliant Energy owns and operates three a number of wind farms in Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin. In addition to the wind farms owned by Alliant Energy, we also purchase more than 600 megawatts of energy from other wind farms throughout our service area.

How a wind turbine works

A wind turbine works the opposite of a fan. Instead of using electricity to make wind, a turbine uses wind to make electricity.

The wind turns the blades, which spin a shaft, which connects to a generator and makes electricity. The electricity is sent through transmission and distribution lines to a substation, then on to homes, businesses and schools.

Make your own wind-powered gadgets!

Now that you've read about wind power, you can make your own wind-powered gadgets at home.
Make your own wind turbine activity .pdf
360-degree video: Wind turbine inside and out

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Using the wind to create electricity has been around for a long time. You've probably seen windmills on farms. But we can create energy on a large scale using wind these days!

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Fun Kids - the UK's children's radio station

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What is wind energy? How can wind generate electricity?

Here's the need-to-know stuff about the energy source, wind!

Description

As the Earth is heated by the Sun, some regions become warmer than others. The air in the warm regions rises. Air from cooler regions rushes in to replace it. This creates air currents - what we know as the wind.

Where can you find wind power?

Winds affect every part of the Earth. There are over 130 wind farms in the UK and many more are under construction.

Wind turbines can be put in any area where there is a lot of wind! Some are on land and some are in the sea - these are called 'offshore' wind farms!

How is it made into electricity?

The wind blows turbine blades, which then turn. This turning motion is transferred to a generator to produce electricity.

What are the advantages of using wind?

It is a renewable source of energy, which means that it will not run out!

As one of the windiest countries in Europe, it is perfect for our climate!

Wind energy is pollution free.

The land between the turbines can be used for farming meaning it doesn't take up too much space.

Wind turbines can be used to supply energy in remote places.

There is no need to dig underground or drill for the resource; therefore there is less land pollution!

What are the disadvantages of using wind?

There are potential local wildlife impacts such as birds being killed by the blades of the turbine. However, the risk to nature from climate change is far greater than this.

The wind is not always predictable. Some days may have a lot of wind and others may have no wind at all.

Click here for more energy facts!

We've got a whole series about energy, electricity, and power generation! It's called Curious Kate, and you can listen to it below!

EXPLORE THIS SERIES

Podcasts

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Wind: Energy Source Fact File! - Fun Kids - the UK's children's radio station

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Here's the need-to-know stuff about the energy source, wind! Description As the Earth is heated by the Sun, some regions become warmer than others. The air in the warm regions more "

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Wind Energy is a clean and renewable source of energy that comes from the wind. There are different ways to harness this energy like windmills etc.

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Journal

Knitting the Wind project

Knitting the Wind project

Tejiendo el Viento (Spanish for 'Knitting the Wind') is an initiative by Siemens Gamesa to improve economic conditions for artisan women in the Isthmus region in Oaxaca, Mexico. It is a part of the Company's social responsibility strategy in its 'Community Engagement' pillar. Women who participate in Tejiendo el Viento recover their traditional craft with three different techniques - knitting, embroidery and cadenilla (a typical chain-shaped knitting pattern) - which they incorporate into textile and leather products. These give shape to unique pieces that preserve the ancestral knowledge and colorfulness of women in the Isthmus.

Read More

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Children are the future. They have not only changed the debate around the environmental crisis, increasing its relevance and urgency , but they have become the key to change. Our planet needs committed young people whose concern about the climate crisis leads them in the future to face titanic challenges such as designing less polluting cities or generating more environmentally sustainable production techniques.

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SG_Infographic_How a wind turbine work_A4

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DK Find Out! | Fun Facts for Kids on Animals, Earth, History and more!

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Visit DK Find Out! to learn about dinosaurs, space, animals, nature & more. Fun learning activities for kids with videos, quizzes & galleries at DKFindOut.com

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What is a Pulley? - Simple Machines | Science for Kids | Educational Videos by Mocomi

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A pulley is a simple machine that is used to lift heavy objects. Block and tackle system is a modified form of a pulley. Pulleys are usually used in sets designed to make the amount of force needed to lift something smaller. A pulley may be simple, but this is used in complex things like elevators! Pulleys are also useful in construction sites.

Types of pulleys

Static A static or class 1 pulley has an axle that is "staticed" or is stationary, meaning that it cannot be moved. A fixed pulley is used to redirect the force in a rope (called a belt when it goes in a full circle). A fixed pulley has a mechanical advantage of 1. The static pulley has a wheel and an axle.

Movable A movable or class 2 pulley has an axle that is "free" to move in space. A movable pulley is used to transform forces. A movable pulley has a mechanical advantage of 2. That is, if one end of the rope is anchored, pulling on the other end of the rope will apply a doubled force to the objecT attached to the pulley.

Compound A compound pulley is a combination fixed and movable pulley system.
Block and tackle - A block and tackle is a compound pulley where several pulleys are mounted on each axle, further increasing the mechanical advantage.

The drive element of a pulley system can be a rope, cable, belt, or chain.

The earliest evidence of pulleys dates back to Ancient Egypt in the Twelfth Dynasty (1991-1802 BCE) and Mesopotamia in the early 2nd millennium BCE. In Roman Egypt, Hero of Alexandria (c. 10-70 CE) identified the pulley as one of six simple machines used to lift weights. Plutarch reported that Archimedes moved an entire warship, laden with men, using compound pulleys and his own strength.

Images for kids

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A pulley is a simple machine that is used to lift heavy objects. Block and tackle system is a modified form of a pulley. Pulleys are usually used in sets designed to make the amount of force needed to lift something smaller. A pulley may be simple, but this is used in complex things like elevators!

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How Does a Pulley Work? | Design Squad Videos | PBS KIDS

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A pulley is a simple machine using a wheel and a cord that's designed for lifting. Pulleys help make work easier by redirecting motion or loads. Pulleys are everywhere - look for some around your home and try making one with Nate.

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Newsela | Generating energy from the wind

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Wind, an original source of energy, is coming back in favor around the world.

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The elements of a poem | Reading | Khan Academy (unlisted)

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Poetry | Rhyme Scheme, Rhythm, Repetition

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Poetry for Beginners: What is Figurative Language?

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8 Types of Energy For Kids With Examples - Physics For Kids

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"The ability to do work" is known as energy. Anything happening around us only due to energy.Explore 8 types of energy for kids with examples.

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Select User Type | myLearning | Pasco County Schools

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Select your user type for logging into myLearning, Pasco County Schools' implementation of Canvas LMS.

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How Do Wind Turbines Work? | Sources Of Electric Energy | The Dr Binocs Show | Peekaboo Kidz