I am doing a project for school (its not for a class but its for a teacher me and my friends hang with at lunch) and it has to do with renewable energy. and I need to know how wind turbines convert wind into usable energy.
also if you can tell me how they convert the tides’ and suns’ natural energy into energy used for everyday appliances like lightbulbs and machines.
thanks in advance!
thanks for all the great answers!!!
I think this is the most amount of answers I have ever gotten when I’ve asked a question.
More Pages:
- Solar Turbines: Wind Turbines.? (5/19/2011)
- Solar Turbines: Wind Turbines? (5/21/2011)
- Solar Turbines: How Will Wind Turbines Affect The Climate? (6/20/2011)
- Solar Turbines: What Forms Of Energy And Energy Transformations Are Involved In Wind Turbines? (6/15/2011)
- Solar Turbines: Where Would Be Good And Reasonable Places To Put Wind Turbines To Produce Energy In CHICAGO? (7/9/2011)
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Most modern wind power is generated in the form of electricity by converting the rotation of turbine blades into electrical current by means of an electrical generator.
the blades of the windmill turn a dynamo, which is basically an electric motor run in reverse, meaning you spin it and it produces electricity.
Turbine turns a generator which makes electricity. It’s really just a large version of the generator (or alternator) in your car. Have somebody point it out to you.
I’ll leave the tides and sun as an exercise for the reader.
A wind turbine is a propeller which rotates when the wind blows through it. One kind of tidal generator is basically a dam across an estuary. As the tides surge in and out, the water flowing in or out drives a turbine. Another type consists of rotors with vertical axes on the sea floor. The tidal currents drive them round. In all these devices the propeller or turbine drives an electricity generator.
Wind turbines take the energy in moving air (wind) and converts it to electrical power with a generator. The force of the wind on the blades of the windmill (wind turbine) causes it to rotate with a force (like a toy pinwheel if you blow on it). This rotational force causes a generator to turn. Magnets in the generator causes an electrical current to flow. This electrical current is used to power things such as light bulbs.
Wind energy ultimately comes from sunlight. The weather is powered by the sun heating the ground and water which causes air to heat up and rise (or water to heat and evaporate). These moving currents of air and water vapor are the basis for all weather (and wind is of course part of the weather). You can use something very much like a wind turbine in the water to harness tidal power. Tidal power is caused by the gravitational drag from the Moon and Sun on large bodies of water such as the Oceans. Tides cause water to rise and fall. If you have an bay or inlet where water flows during a tidal change, you can put a water turbine to power a generator from the flow of the incoming or outgoing tide.
The principle is really simple. It’s called the conservation of momentum, where F x t = m2Xv2 – m1Xv1.
When the moving air particles hit the blade of a turbine at an angle, it loses velocity. The lost velocity is transfromed into a force in the magnitude defined by the equation above. The efficience of your wind turbine is determined by the pitch of your propeller which varies depending on the speed of the wind. The kinetic energy of the turbine is then transformed into electrical energy by a generator.