Harnessing Wind Energy

Post By Joshua S A

Wind as an Energy Source has been in use since the time of recorded or discovered history.

From ancient times, Man learned to use wind as an Energy source. Sailboats were probably the first wind-powered transportation means. And Sail boats being so practical and useful are still in use with this modern technology time. High Tech Yachts are a popular sport. But in the remote areas of some countries like India, Bangladesh, and China, the Sailboats are still being used for everyday transportation purposes.

In many ancient civilizations like China, Egypt, and Persia which recognized the potential of Wind Power, invented ways to use it for many things other than sailing boats like grinding grains and other foods, and pumping water.

One of the such Wind mill of ancient Persian civilization is still in use grinding grains in Sistan, Iran.  

Another use of Wind in ancient times was Ventilation of the residential spaces. Wind Wind-capturing ducts have been in use for many millennia and they are still in the architectural designs of houses and larger residential spaces in many countries of the Middle East and Southeast regions.

In the Middle Ages, Wind became a major energy source for water pumping, grinding mills, and some other industries as well. Most of this work was done in Europe. We can see some windmills of the Middle Ages in Holland along with recent ones.

Further development was done not before the eighteenth century when windmills became a modern Energy source due to the Industrial Revolution and all across America Wind Mills became a common site in agricultural and Industrial areas.

But the biggest change came when Windmills were re-engineered for Electricity Generation. The transition from Mechanical to Electrical was the biggest change and Wind Turbines became widely accepted as a cheap energy source by many industries.

From mid of the 20th Century Wind Turbines for Electricity Generation have been accepted as an alternative to Fuel Fired Electricity Generation.

Now in these current times, we have state-of-the-art Wind Turbines and the most promising Technology. More and more Energy Companies are going for Wind turbine farms for Electricity Generation.

To save land areas and to be more able to capture Coastal Winds, Floating Wind Farms are becoming more popular for Wind Energy projects.

Today’s Wind Turbines are Engineering Marvels Harnessing free and continuously available Winds Energy and converting the Kinetic Energy of Winds into commercially and domestically useable Electrical Power.

Due to more Technical Research and Precise Engineering Design, Wind Turbines are becoming more efficient.

They are producing more Electricity, require less maintenance and operating cost, becoming Safer against sudden variations in the wind speed and weather changes and they are producing less noise.

While describing Wind Turbines as Electricity Generation, Size of the turbines does not matter and many companies have designed tiny Wind Turbines used in thousands of numbers in some monumental architectural buildings.

 

The use of Tunnels as Wind Funnels and using them to run the turbines (at both large and small scale as per design) is another way to use wind and some coastal city recreational parks are designed for this type of Wind Power Generation.

 

Kite-type Wind Turbines or Flying Turbines are another way to use it without the mast and just flying with the strings. This design has its limitations and in most areas urban administrative laws also restrict them.

Use of Wind Turbines Power generation for domestic usage has become very popular in windy areas and a lot of research on domestic-scale wind turbines has developed them to produce power many times more than it was producing before.

There are so many types and variants of domestic wind turbines now that people not only choose for their efficiency but also for their aesthetic looks.  Also, they are more silent than before eliminating the excuse of noise pollution which was a reason for many homes/farm owners not to use them.

We can safely say that Wind Energy has big potential to cater to our growing energy needs especially in this modern time when Environmental issues are growing due to Fossil fuel-fired Power plants.

Wind Turbines are now more efficient (and will be more so in upcoming years) and as per statistics from the world’s energy monitoring agencies like the International Energy Association IEA, the Wind will become around 20% part of the Energy mix in two decades.

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