There is a lot of debate these days about the advantages and disadvantages of wind power versus solar power.
Many solar power enthusiasts feel we are wasting time and resources pursuing a unreliable energy source, while many wind power champions feel that solar panels are simply not as efficient at creating electricity as wind turbines are.
Both are right in their own way, but wrong in a fundamental way.
Wind, like most things on our planet, only exists because of the sun.
As the sun's radiation warms the earth, different materials absorb the heat at different rates.
For instance, water heats much more slowly than rock, and ice and snow even less than water since it reflects much of the energy back into space.
Generally the darker material warms faster, and as it warms, the heat in turn warms the air above it, which then rises.
Remembering our basic physics lessons, warm air rises, leaving a void for the cool air to then rush in and fill.
This movement we call wind.
So really, wind power is really solar power in a different form.
We can harness wind power by getting the motion of the air to in turn move a rotor, which generates electricity.
This is how a wind turbine works: the blades of the turbine are mounted on an axis, whether vertical or horizontal, and cause the axis to spin.
This spinning in turn rotates a generator, and electricity is created.
The electricity is then transmitted from the generator by means of a cable, usually to either the source load or a battery bank if the excess energy is to be stored.
It is a simple idea, to make electricity from wind.
But there are other uses for wind power as well.
One of the earliest, original uses of wind was of course to power boats.
This method of moving boats across water allowed the earliest civilizations to explore far beyond their shores, and was only replaced barely 150 years ago, when the first steam power ships began to be used.
Of course even to this day there are millions of sail boats around, used mostly for leisure, but some still have commercial applications as well.
Another ancient use of wind power was to grind grain using a wheel that was turned by the wind.
The wheel would be mounted on a vertical axis, and the windmill would require some kind of gear to translate its rotation from a horizontal to a vertical axis.
This same principle is used in the windmills we sometimes see on the farms, except in that case they are usually used to pump water for livestock.
So to really answer the question, what is wind power, we would have to say that it is clean, renewable, accessible and reliable source of power that has been used by mankind since the earliest civilizations.
In fact, it is really only in the last 100 years that using the wind for power has declined, since the beginning of the oil age replaced a lot of the technology with a powerful, but dirty alternative.
It is time for us to once again start thinking of wind power as a viable source of energy.
Many solar power enthusiasts feel we are wasting time and resources pursuing a unreliable energy source, while many wind power champions feel that solar panels are simply not as efficient at creating electricity as wind turbines are.
Both are right in their own way, but wrong in a fundamental way.
Wind, like most things on our planet, only exists because of the sun.
As the sun's radiation warms the earth, different materials absorb the heat at different rates.
For instance, water heats much more slowly than rock, and ice and snow even less than water since it reflects much of the energy back into space.
Generally the darker material warms faster, and as it warms, the heat in turn warms the air above it, which then rises.
Remembering our basic physics lessons, warm air rises, leaving a void for the cool air to then rush in and fill.
This movement we call wind.
So really, wind power is really solar power in a different form.
We can harness wind power by getting the motion of the air to in turn move a rotor, which generates electricity.
This is how a wind turbine works: the blades of the turbine are mounted on an axis, whether vertical or horizontal, and cause the axis to spin.
This spinning in turn rotates a generator, and electricity is created.
The electricity is then transmitted from the generator by means of a cable, usually to either the source load or a battery bank if the excess energy is to be stored.
It is a simple idea, to make electricity from wind.
But there are other uses for wind power as well.
One of the earliest, original uses of wind was of course to power boats.
This method of moving boats across water allowed the earliest civilizations to explore far beyond their shores, and was only replaced barely 150 years ago, when the first steam power ships began to be used.
Of course even to this day there are millions of sail boats around, used mostly for leisure, but some still have commercial applications as well.
Another ancient use of wind power was to grind grain using a wheel that was turned by the wind.
The wheel would be mounted on a vertical axis, and the windmill would require some kind of gear to translate its rotation from a horizontal to a vertical axis.
This same principle is used in the windmills we sometimes see on the farms, except in that case they are usually used to pump water for livestock.
So to really answer the question, what is wind power, we would have to say that it is clean, renewable, accessible and reliable source of power that has been used by mankind since the earliest civilizations.
In fact, it is really only in the last 100 years that using the wind for power has declined, since the beginning of the oil age replaced a lot of the technology with a powerful, but dirty alternative.
It is time for us to once again start thinking of wind power as a viable source of energy.
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