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Introduction
 Wind energy is the energy present in the flow of air around the earth. The wind is driven by the temperature and pressure differences in the atmosphere arising from heating of the earth by the sun and it is further guided by topography. The energy stored in the atmosphere is in three forms, kinetic, potential, and thermal. They all play a part in the motion of wind, but the main interest is in the kinetic energy from the wind's motion. This is a file from the Wikimedia Commons, a repository of free content hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation. ...
Atmosphere may refer to: a celestial body atmosphere, e. ...
Surface of the Earth Topography, a term in geography, has come to refer to the lay of the land, or the physiogeographic characteristics of land in terms of elevation, slope, and orientation. ...
Kinetic energy (also called vis viva, or living force) is energy possessed by a body by virtue of its motion. ...
Potential energy (U, or Ep) is defined as work of conservative force(s) during change of state of physical system from given static state to another static state (latter is usually called reference state, or reference level). ...
Thermal energy is kinetic energy of disordered motion and of vibrations of microscopic particles such as molecules and atoms. ...
The term wind energy is most often used to refer to the collection of useful energy from wind. This can be electrical, as in wind turbines, or mechanical, as used milling, or wind pumps, used often for irrigation in agriculture. A tall tower holds a wind turbine aloft where winds are consistently stronger. ...
The wind has been used for thousands of years as a source of energy. Sailors capture it in the sails of their ships, and weather has therefore had important historical consequences, for example, the Spanish Armada was defeated with the help of stormy weather around the British Isles. The Netherlands are famous for the use of windmills with four cloth sails. These were used for pumping water to drain polders forming agricultural land. In the UK, Norfolk borrowed this Dutch expertise to do the same, leaving distinctive features on the flat lowland landscape. The Spanish Armada (Old Spanish: Grande y Felicissima Armada, large and most fortunate fleet; but called by the British, with ironic intention, la Armada Invencible, the Invincible Fleet) was a fleet sent by King Philip II of Spain in 1588 in a failed attempt to bring an end to his...
The British Isles consist of Great Britain, Ireland and a number of much smaller surrounding islands. ...
A polder is a low-lying tract of land that forms an artificial hydrological entity, enclosed by embankments known as dikes and requiring drainage by pumps to prevent the water table within it from rising too high. ...
For alternative meanings see: Norfolk (disambiguation) Norfolk (pronounced NOR-fk) is a low-lying county in East Anglia in the east of southern England. ...
In poor agricultural communities, and in remote areas all over the world, small turbines with many blades harness wind energy for pumping water. For example, in Egypt, there is a long history of irrigation of the Nile valley with machinery. Archimedes's Screw can be turned by mule, human, or wind energy.
Windmills have long been used for milling flour (the origin of the word?). Wooden shafts and cogs would take the rotation from the sails, and turn the millstones. Once captured, the power could also be used for lifting loads. There used to be hundreds of thousands of these distinctive buildings all over Europe. The number now is far less, although there is a growth in the number of wind turbines which may number a few tens of thousands across Europe and out in its shallow seas. A tall tower holds a wind turbine aloft where winds are consistently stronger. ...
The use of wind energy is the most economic method of electrical power production widely considered to be environmentally sound. There is a small carbon cost in building the turbines, but this is paid back in terms of 'saved carbon' within a few weeks or months of operation over a thirty-year life span. The machines can be disassembled leaving little impact on the original landscape.
Denmark, Germany, Spain, India, and the USA have large installations of wind power, with principally Europe leading the way with quiet, efficient and modern machinery. Opposition to the use of wind power is growing slowly, and research into possible negative impacts of its use has become more common. For example, one study by geophysicists at Princeton University in the USA [1] modelled effects of large scale wind farms on local climate and potential long-term negative impact on climate due to their presence. This has some basis in that wind turbines do slow the wind down in order to extract kinetic energy; however, making global climate predictions based on this effect is extremely challenging. However, there has been some discussion from those in the industry that those opposed to the use of wind energy will use studies like this to further opposition to the widespread use of wind energy [2].
Peaks and Troughs Wind generators suffer a disadvantage that wind strength varies by time and by season, and may not match the load. However, the load typically varies greatly from minute to minute and is itself not perfectly predictable. Likewise, conventional power can fail and requires reserve capacity.
With ever improving forecasting techniques, foreknowledge of power production can be used to integrate large percentages of wind into electrical grids. Denmark, for example, has supplied over 50% of its instantaneous energy requirements from wind on some occasions.
Furthermore, with turbines spread over large geographical areas, onshore and offshore, the portfolio effect results in the total wind power variation being much less than for a single farm or turbine because different weather systems lie over different parts of the world at one time.
Wind generators may can be linked with energy storage devices that can release the energy at the times when it is most wanted, including:
The most practical of these for large scale development is pumped storage. The others are far too expensive.
Disadvantages (both real and perceived)
Energy Usage During the lifecycle of a wind turbine energy isn’t only produced but also used for the raw materials, production, maintenance, control electronics and destruction. Estimates of the energy balance (the time required to 'pay back' the energy used) in the construction of wind turbines and wind farms are generally listed as three to six months, which compares favourably with more traditional sources of electricity (fossil fuel plants).
Wind turbines can cause disturbance on radar images. That is why wind turbines shouldn’t be placed in the neighbourhood of radar stations. There is an investigation going on about the possibility to provide the rotor of wind turbines with a radar-radiation-absorbing layer (like stealth airplanes) and to the possibility to equip the radar stations with software which doesn’t show the wind turbines. This long range radar antenna (approximately 40m (130ft) in diameter) rotates on a track to observe activities near the horizon. ...
R0t0r is from efnet ...
Birds Birds and bats can die if they fly into a wind turbine. Bird and animal habitats can also be damaged by the placement of wind turbines. This was most notably an issue with the Altamont Pass wind turbine development in California, where large numbers of raptors are affected by the placement of these turbines in their migratory path. However, careful siting and examination of habitats in proposed turbine locations can mitigate negative effects turbines might have on the fauna in a particular area.
Visual Wind turbines are huge and can be seen from a great distance, this is cause for concern to many that live or are otherwise in contact with large wind farms. In the beginning of the modern wind energy movement in the Netherlands there were many individual wind turbines. Those were placed randomly and this gave a bit of a messy look. In most new farms being developed wind turbines are placed in lines or clusters to take the best advantage of the existing wind regime, local terrain and in some cases, existing infrastructure (roads, canals, tranmission lines).
Noise Noise associated with wind turbines has two causes: the mechanic noise of the moving parts in the generator and the whizzing noise of the rotation of the rotor blades. For most wind turbines the gondola is isolated and the only noise comes from the rotor blades. The noise of the rotor blades increases with the wind speed. For a modern wind turbine the noise is between 91 dB(A) and 102 dB(A). The noise which is heard by the people who live in the neighbourhood of the wind turbine depends on the distance till the turbine and the strength of the background noise. From a distance of 350 to 400 meter of a wind turbine the noise is generally indistinguishable from the ambient noise.
Space Required A wind turbine farm can potentially take up a large area. But of this surface only 1% is used by the mast base and transformer. In most cases, existing land use can continue in the same area as the wind farm, which especially true of agriculture - both crop and livestock. The potential for negative impacts due to noise and shadow flicker do limit the residential and commercial uses that can take place below wind turbines.
Law In order to successfully comission wind turbines there are a number of building and other permits required. Municipal, as well as state, province or national regulations must be adhered to and vvary from country to country.
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disadvantages of the energy(network) from wind turbines
Quality of the Energy Produced In many old wind turbines the generator is directly attached to the electricity network (the Danish concept). This means that the rotor speed can be determined by the frequency of the network. This can lead to a variation of the frequency and the instability of the network. However these turbines are rarely used anymore. Modern wind turbines have a variable speed turbine. These turbines make the total or a part of the energy go through AC-DC-AC-converter to the electricity network. These turbines do not cause network instability.
Variability of the wind The wind speed isn’t constant. Sometimes there isn’t wind at all. Wind turbines create energy from a Beaufort number 2-3. From a Beaufort number of 6 they produce the most it keeps producing the most until Beaufort number 10. When it is above Beaufort number 10 then the wind turbine must be stopped because of safety rules. The average power created by a modern wind turbine about 35% of the nominal ability. | 
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