Converts kinetic energy in moving air into electrical energy. If mechanical energy is directly used it’s termed as wind mill.
Winds are basically caused by the solar heating of the atmosphere. They carry huge amount of energy.
There is no depletion of scarce resources further, it doesn’t impose additional burden on the environment.
The two types of turbines and typical subsystems for an electricity generation application.
The subsystems embrace a blade or rotor that converts the energy within the wind to rotational shaft energy. A drive train usually including gearbox and generator tower that supports the rotor and drive train and other equipment including controls, electrical cables, ground support equipment and interconnection equipment.
The various parts of a wind-electric generating power plant.
Wind turbine or rotor.
Wind mill head – it includes speed increases, drive shaft, clutch, coupling
Electric generator.
Supporting structure.
The most important component is rotor. For an effective utilization all components ought to be properly designed and matched.
The wind head functions are
It supports the rotor housing and therefore the rotor bearings.
It also houses any control mechanism incorporated like changing the pitch of the blades and tail vane to orient the rotor to face the wind. The wind turbine may be located either unwind or downwind of the power.
Downwind rotors are generally preferred especially for the large aero generators.•The supporting structure is designed to withstand the wind load during gusts. Its type and height is related to cost and transmission system incorporated.
Types of Wind Machines
Wind machines are classified into
Horizontal axis wind machines.
Vertical axis wind machines.
Horizontal axis wind machines
The common wind turbine with horizontal axis is simple. Especially a large one that may produce electric power economically.
It is of paramount importance’s that the components like rotor, transmission, generator and tower should not only be as efficient as possible but they must also function effectively in combination.
Wind electric generators (WEG)
Wind electric generator converts kinetic energy available in wind to electrical energy by using rotor, gear box and generator.
The amount of energy, a wind turbine will produce is depends on the speed of the wind. Increasing wind velocity increases the amount of air passing the rotor which increases the output of the wind system.
In order for a wind system to be effective a relatively consistent wind flow is required.
To avoid this rotors are placed on top of towers to take advantage of the strong winds available high above the ground.
The towers are generally placed 100 meters away from the nearest obstacle. The middle of the rotor is placed 10 meters above any obstacle that is within 100 meters.
Vertical axis wind machines
One of the main advantages of vertical axis rotors is that they do not have to be turned into the wind stream as the wind direction changes.
Because their operation is independent of wind direction, vertical axis machine are called panemones.
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