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The Alternative Energy Wind Power

With so much talk about environmental damage, dwindling fossil fuels, and sky rocketing oil and energy prices it is now clear that we must look for home made energy resources that will be able to supply our endless needs without the possibility of it being exhausted.

Some federal lawmakers are pushing to get the federal government to mandate these tax breaks and other wind power incentives in all 50 states. Japan and Germany already have national incentive programs in place. However, “A lot of this is handled regionally by state law. There wouldn’t really be a role for the federal government,” the Energy Department’s Craig Stevens says. And as might be imagined, there are power companies who feel that it’s unfair that they should have to pay retail rates to private individuals. “We should [only have to] pay you the wholesale rate for … your electricity,” according to Bruce Bowen, Pacific Gas & Electric’s director of regulatory policy. However, the companies seem to be more worried about losing short term profits than about the benefits, especially in the long run, of the increased use of wind turbines or wind farms. Head of the Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technologies of California V. John White points out, “It’s quality power that strengthens the grid.”

Beneath Power Is Wind

The Sun unevenly heats the Earth that differences of heat distribution; the poles receive less than the equators do. Unlike the land, the oceans, seas and rivers do not have covering so it retains more heat than soil. This contrast results in a global atmospheric convection that reaches from the stratosphere and into the earth’s surface. Energy in these wind movements are stored at high altitudes where in the wind can achieve speeds up to 160km/hr. Here after with the effects of friction the wind’s energy is diffused into heat throughout the planet and its atmosphere. This vast amount of sustainable power can provide us unimaginable amounts of energy, far more than we currently consume.

Wind Speed Distribution

Wind varies in strength.  The average value of a certain location does not specify the energy of a single wind turbine.  The wind speed’s frequency can be assessed in a particular location, they are fitted by a probable distribution function to the particular observed data.  Different wind distributions varies from different locations, hourly wind speeds at different locations are being monitored by the Rayleigh model, which basically means a continuous probability distribution which was named after Lord Rayleigh.

Electrical Generation

Using the power of electricity from a wind farm is usually fed through a network of electrical power transmissions.  This is done by connecting the individual turbines with a medium voltage power system and a series of communications networks.  The electrical current is then increased with a transformer to be able to connect to the high voltage transmitting system.  System operators supplies the wind farm owner with a code that indicates requirements  to be able to connect to the transmission grid which includes the power factor, the constancy of the frequency and the behavior of the wind turbines when experiencing system faults.

Now that we know that the speed of wind is not constant, a farm’s energy production is not as much as the sum of the nameplate rating being multiplied by the year’s total hours being used.  The ratio of this productivity in a whole year is called the capacity factor. This is the ratio of productivity in a year to this theoretical maximum.

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