Wind power
hideWind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form, such as electricity, using wind turbines. At the end of 2008, worldwide nameplate capacity of wind-powered generators was 121.2 gigawatts (GW). Wind power produces about 1.5% of worldwide electricity use, and is growing rapidly, having doubled in the three years between 2005 and 2008. Several countries have achieved relatively high levels of wind power penetration, such as 19% of stationary electricity production in Denmark, 11% in Spain and Portugal, and 7% in Germany and the Republic of Ireland in 2008. As of May 2009, eighty countries around the world are using wind power on a commercial basis.
Large-scale wind farms are connected to the electric power transmission network. Smaller turbines are used to provide electricity to isolated locations. Utility companies increasingly buy back surplus electricity produced by small domestic turbines. Wind energy as a power source is attractive as an alternative to fossil fuels, because it is plentiful, renewable, widely distributed, clean, and produces no greenhouse gas emissions; however, the construction of wind farms (as with other forms of power generation) is not universally welcomed due to their visual impact and other effects on the environment.
Wind power is non-dispatchable, meaning that for economic operation all of the available output must be taken when it is available, and other resources, such as hydropower, and standard load management techniques must be used to match supply with demand. The intermittency of wind seldom creates problems when using wind power to supply a low proportion of total demand. Where wind is to be used for a moderate fraction of demand, additional costs for compensation of intermittency are considered to be modest.
For more information about Wind power, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
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News tagged with wind energy
Clean energy to grow into 1.6 trillion euros industry: WWF
Dec 10, 2009 |
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The clean energy technology sector will grow into a 1.6 trillion-euro (2.4 trillion-dollar) industry by 2020, becoming the third largest industrial sector after automobiles and electronics, WWF said Friday.
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Study expects rising interest in energy saving
12 hours ago |
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(AP) -- Energy-efficient technology for batteries, grids and power storage will be trendy in 2010, according to a study released Wednesday on clean energy technology.
Weir in space and dimmed sun creates 200-million-mile-long lab bench for turbulence research
Dec 11, 2009 |
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Physicists working in space plasmas have made clever use of the Ulysses spacecraft and the solar minimum to create a massive virtual lab bench to provide a unique test for the science underlying turbulent ...
Staying Power: Senate Hearing Focuses On Energy Storage
Dec 10, 2009 |
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Thursday's Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing featured testimony from experts about the power industry's need to develop systems capable of storing large amounts of electricity if the nation's ...
Pollution alters isolated thunderstorms
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Dec 15, 2009 |
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New climate research reveals how wind shear -- the same atmospheric conditions that cause bumpy airplane rides -- affects how pollution contributes to isolated thunderstorm clouds. Under strong wind shear ...
Launch of first operating system for smart grid home automation
19 hours ago |
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Fraunhofer IWES (Germany) presents the OGEMA Alliance, which will offer an open software platform for energy management.
New curriculum mixes nanotechnology and skiing (w/ Video)
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Dec 14, 2009 |
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Nanotechnology seems a daunting subject, but for mechanical engineering students at the University of Nevada, Reno, it has taken on a real world approach - in Ski Building 101.
World's mayors tackle climate change on their own
Dec 14, 2009 |
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(AP) -- It isn't easy getting Italy's city dwellers out of their Fiats, off their Vespa scooters and onto bicycles to ride to work, "like here in Copenhagen," says an Italian environmental official.
Valuable, rare, raw earth materials extracted from industrial waste stream
Dec 15, 2009 |
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Fierce competition over raw materials for new green technologies could become a thing of the past, thanks to a discovery by scientists from the University of Leeds.
Miracle light: Can lasers solve the energy crisis?
Dec 15, 2009 |
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Next year will mark the 50th birthday of the laser, one of the most productive and widely used mega-inventions of the last century. Scientists hope that 2010 also will see the launch of laser technology's greatest challenge: ...
NASA unveils latest results from lunar mission
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Dec 15, 2009 |
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NASA's current mission in orbit around the moon, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, has been providing crucial insights about our nearest celestial neighbor since its launch in June. At a scientific ...
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