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This video give more info on wind energy .

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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:

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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Learn the basics of how wind turbines operate to produce clean power from an abundant, renewable resource-the wind.

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#1 Define this energy resource. (What is it?)

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#1 Define this energy resource. (What is it?)

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Wind energy is is the use of wind to provide mechinacal power through wind turbines to turn electric genoriters to provide power.

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#2 Where do we find this energy resource? (explain in detail)

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#2 Where do we find this energy resource? (explain in detail)

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We can find wind turnbines ( windmills) on a top of a mountain or other really windy places.

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#3 (changed) into other useful forms of energy?( Explain the energy conversions used most often) 

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#3 (changed) into other useful forms of energy?( Explain the energy conversions used most often) 

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Wind turbines convert the kinetic energy in the wind into mechanical power. A generator can convert mechanical power into electricity. From there You can just use it as you would normal electricity.

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#4 Is this energy resource being used in your community? Where? 

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#4 Is this energy resource being used in your community? Where? 

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Wind energy is generally not use in Mchenry county, due to space, suburbs make up Mchenry county and there is not much room for big wind mills, you may spot a few but not many, our county uses different types of energy.

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#7 What are 3 drawbacks of using this energy resource?    

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#7 What are 3 drawbacks of using this energy resource?    

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Drawbacks of wind energy:
1. Can be noisy
2.You need wind to produce
3. Needs space to produce

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#5 Is this energy resource used in your state? Where? 

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#5 Is this energy resource used in your state? Where? 

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In Illinois there are 2,778 operating wind mills, fun fact Illinois ranks 6th state with themost windmills.

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#6 What are 3 benefits of using this energy resource?  

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#6 What are 3 benefits of using this energy resource?  

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Three benifits of wind energy:
1.wind turbines can be built on excisting farms or ranches
2.Wind is cost efficient
3.Its a Clean fuel source

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#8 Can this type of energy resource be used by people in their homes right now? Explain what things would need to be done in our homes to use this resource. 

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#8 Can this type of energy resource be used by people in their homes right now? Explain what things would need to be done in our homes to use this resource. 

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it depends on the size of your home, how much energy you need, and the annual average wind speed in your area. Clean energy can be supplied directly to any size household regardless of whether you actually live in a windy area or not

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#9 Could this energy resource be used for transportation? How? 

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#9 Could this energy resource be used for transportation? How? 

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At https://intrans.iastate.edu/news/this-will-blow-you-away-wind-energy/ It states that in the Netherlands, all of the railway networks is powered by wind energy! They decided to use wind power due to the low impact that it has on the environment.

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posted on May 30, 2016
Can you believe, in the United States, only 10 percent of the energy we consume comes from renewable sources? So, what's a renewable energy source? You've probably heard of them before: wind energy, solar energy, hydroelectric energy, geothermal energy, and biomass. In the next few articles, we'll be talking about how renewable energy sources are being put to use in the world of transportation; from solar power to wind energy, some engineers, inventors, and entrepreneurs are taking advantage of these eco-friendly energy alternatives.

If someone told you that the wind could power the world, would it blow you away?

Wind power collects the natural airflow in our atmosphere. Today, countries like Germany, Spain, the United States, India, and Denmark are leading the way in wind energy production.

The wind energy industry is booming and is expected to continue growing as the demand for renewable energy increases. If wind energy continues to grow as quickly as it is now, industry experts predict that by 2050, wind power could be "the answer" to one-third of the world's electricity. ¹

How does it work?

Wind power is collected using wind turbines. They are classified into two general types: horizontal axis and vertical axis. Let's look at horizontal axis wind turbines, which happen to be the most common. These wind turbines are massive and can be as tall as a 20 story building. They usually consist of three main components:

First, they have three large blades, usually measuring 200 feet in length, which collect the air and begin to turn as it passes by. Second, the blades are connected to a shaft inside the turbine. As the wind begins to rotate the blades, it turns the internal shaft. Lastly, the shaft spins the generator, which is ultimately used to produce electricity!

These wind turbines often exist on "wind farms," which can have tens--sometimes hundreds--of wind turbines lined up in windier areas. Or, smaller turbines can be used in backyards to produce electricity for a single home or small business!

The vertical axis wind turbine works the same way, but the blades look like a giant egg-beater.

Run on the wind

Wind energy is also being used in the world of transportation.

The Netherlands, located in northwest Europe, is a country known for its windmills and flat landscape. Windmills, the first form of wind power, were first put to use centuries ago for tasks like grounding grain and pumping water.

The Netherlands is encouraging renewable energy practices today, too, with the use of wind turbines (which is essentially an "evolved windmill"). The Netherlands are harnessing the power of wind to literally "ride like the wind" on their railway network, which serves about 1.2 million passengers each day. ²

In 2015, electricity generated by wind turbines already accounted for half of the traction power used to run the railway network in the Netherlands. Under a contract, which runs from 2015 to 2025, wind energy will provide 100 percent of traction power for the electrified rail network by 2018. ³

Why wind power?

So why should we be using wind power? In fact, why should we care about wind energy at all?

Because, wind power has the lowest environmental impact of any large-scale electricity source and is helping to reduce the threat of climate change!

Wind energy is a clean form of energy, producing electricity without negative effects like air pollution, greenhouses gases, or solid waste. Furthermore, wind energy requires almost no water for production, making it a promising alternative to burning harsh fossil fuels.

Wind turbines continue to increase in size, too.

Today's wind turbine produces 17 times more electricity than a turbine made in 1990. On top of that, the cost of producing wind energy is dropping each year; in fact, the cost of producing wind energy has dropped more than 50 percent in the last 6 years! And since wind is free, the operating costs for producing wind energy are nearly zero, once a turbine is put up.

Why not wind power?

With all those benefits in mind, why aren't there more wind farms? Is there any reason we shouldn't be harnessing wind power?

Unfortunately, wind energy production has a few drawbacks. First, the amount of energy wind can produce varies, because airflow (and therefore wind power) varies based on time, location, and speed. And, it's difficult to store excess electricity.

There's also a visual impact and humming noise associated with wind turbines--some people think that wind turbines are ugly and noisy--which can make it difficult to find the right place for them.

Also, the wind turbine's blades may kill birds and bats, but it's important to remember that wind turbines don't account for as many wildlife casualties as cars, power lines, and high-rise buildings. Lastly, the generators, which ultimately produce the electricity, require large amounts of rare earth elements to make (like copper). ⁴

A renewable world

Although wind energy has a few drawbacks, power like wind energy and solar energy continue to be good alternatives to the use of fossil fuels.

Want to know why? Make sure to check out our next article, where we talk about why all of this is so important and how you can get involved!

Citations

1. http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/wind-power-profile/

2. http://www.sciencealert.com/the-netherlands-aims-to-have-a-completely-wind-powered-railway-system-by-2018

3. http://www.railjournal.com/index.php/europe/dutch-trains-to-be-wind-powered-from-2018.html

4. http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/wind-power-profile/

Related links

How wind turbines work (info-graphic): https://www.saveonenergy.com/how-wind-turbines-work/
By Hannah Postlethwait, Go! Staff Writer Go! Magazine Article Index

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This will blow you away: Wind energy | Institute for Transportation

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posted on May 30, 2016 Can you believe, in the United States, only 10 percent of the energy we consume comes from renewable sources? So, what's a renewable energy source? You've probably heard of them before: wind energy, solar energy, hydroelectric energy, geothermal energy, and biomass.