Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form, such as electricity, using wind generators. At the end of 2008, global nameplate capacity of wind-powered generators was 120.8 gigawatts.
Throughout history the wind has been used directly to propel sailing ships or transformed into mechanical power for moving water or grinding grain, but the main use of wind power today is the generation of electricity. Huge wind farms are typically connected to the local electric power transmission network, with smaller turbines being used to provide power to the most rural areas. Utility companies willingly reimburse customer for extra electricity produced by the lower capacity domestic wind generators. Wind energy as an energy source is the favorite among many environmentalists as a viable alternative to fossil fuels, as it is plentiful, renewable, widely distributed, non-toxic, and has less greenhouse gas emissions, even though the construction of wind generating collectives is not universally welcomed due to their and other effects on the Eco-system. The inconsistency of wind seldom creates difficulties when using wind power to provide a low proportion of total usage. In an area where wind is to be used for a moderate proportion of community usage, additional costs for compensation of inconsistency are thought to be reasonable.
Lately, the US has added more wind generated capacity to its transmission network than anyone; American wind power capacity increased by 45% to 16.8 gigawatts in 2007 and surpassing Germany's production capacity in 2008. California has been one of the innovators of the new age wind generation industry, and led America in wind energy production for many years; however, by the end of 2006, Texas became the leading wind production state and today continues to extend its lead. At the end of 2008, the state had 7,116 MW installed, which would have placed it sixth worldwide if Texas were a separate nation.
Note: The whole quantity of economically extractable energy available from the wind is considerably more than current human power use from all sources. An estimated 72 terawatts of wind power on the Earth potentially can be commercially viable, compared to about 15 terawatts average world power used from all sources in 2005. These figures are in spite of the fact that not all the energy of the wind flowing past any given point can be extracted.
The author has been interested in Wind Technology and other forms of alternative energy, for a number of years. Being a man who has always had a curiosity about the science involved, he writes on this subject often. Wind Power Technology is a very good resource!
For the Do-it-yourselfer: http://diyenergy.newagelinx.com/review.html
