What is Wind Energy?
Wind energy otherwise known as Wind Power, is the process of generating mechanical electricy or power though wind. You may have come across what generates wind power before, most likley in your local area or on car rides. Usually these structures are very tall, white, and have three big wings that spin. They are known as Windmills or Wind Turbines. Wind Turbines are the source of how wind is turned into power that we can then use.
History of Wind Energy:
The usage of wind power has been around since the early BC's, but how did it become a popular way to produce energy today? One can say the major reason was the cause of oil shortages in the 1970's that changed the energy environment for the United States and the world forever. With fossil fuels of oil being scarce, it lead to a huge interest in discovering unique alternative energy sources - more renewable energy sources, such as wind energy. Renewable energy sources are great for the environment which lead to funding wind power projects across the United States; thus increasing its popularity. From the article produced by https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/wind/history-of-wind-power.php "The share of U.S. electricy generation from wind grew from less than 1% in 1990 to about 9.4% in 2020," and that "In 2019, 127 countries generated a total of about 1.42 trillion kWH of wind electricity."
How does Wind Energy Work:
Wind turbines use their blades or wings to gather the wind's kinetic energy, kinetic energy is enrgy produced from motion. The wind that flows over the blades creates a lifting effect causing the blades to spin and turn. The blades are each connected to a shaft that turns on an electric generator. The generator then produces electicity or power. Simply put if there is no wind or little to no wind the generator will not get the power needed. It also will not generate any electricity unitl there is sufficient wind movement to turn the blades.
The future of Wind Energy:
Currently right now in the United States wind is a dominant energy source. The U.S. has enough wind turbines to generate over 100 million watts of electricity. That means that is covers cosumption of 30 million average homes alone! It also is now comparitive to prices such as those of natural gas and solar power since the price of wind energy has plummeted over the past decade. As you can tell wind energy is becoming a fast growing energy source with many benefits including overall environment health. With that in mind engineers today are in the early stages of improving wind energy. Examples are airborne wind turbines, considered being used offshore where wind turbines are harder and more expensive to install. Another examples is artificial wind-harvesting trees where they took inspiration from trees strength and position closer to the ground, where they can place them in cities that have complex airflow currents.