by John Mowatt

Your cottage, farm or even city home can be lighted with electricity generated by the wind. Even if you are far from a power line you need not be without power. Wind power is also one of the green forms of energy generation which does no harm to our environment. It is in fact probably the cleanest form of power generation which can be harnessed at reasonable cost.Solar energy is also very “clean” but solar panels are costly and have low power output.

Commercially made wind power plants are available but are quite costly.The simple solution to this problem is to build your own wind power generator.If you have room on your property you could build several units for the price of one commercial unit.Any excess power which you generate can be sold to your power company in many areas now.
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by Jenny Antelli
Source: Sustainable Living Articles

One essential part of any wind project’s development is the wind power feasibility study. This study undertakes a thorough analysis of a variety of factors to determine how viable a wind project will be and how much power can be produced. A feasibility study is used to keep the various stakeholders on the same page about a project in the early development stage of a wind project. Further, should a project be deemed unviable, the feasibility study will have saved stakeholders a great deal of time and money. The feasibility study, therefore, serves as a keystone for the wind energy development project.

To get an accurate read on a wind project’s potential, the feasibility study must first include analysis of wind speeds and air density. Wind power output is a cubic function of wind speed and air density, so gaining these data for an area is crucial to understanding the area’s wind power potential. A feasibility study must also carefully consider transmission and interconnection availability. Dearth of transmission lines for new energy projects is one of the wind industry’s biggest setbacks. For a wind project to be successful, the study must show that a wind project has good chances of being connected to the grid and being able to transmit power to areas of high need such as metropolitan centers.

In addition to gaining an idea of transmission and interconnection possibilities, getting a feel for land control possibilities is another central facet of any feasibility study. For any registered plot of land, the owner holds one set of wind rights. He/she cannot agree to put a turbine from one company on one part of this land and another turbine from another company on another part. If land has already been tied up by another wind developer, a new wind project will likely need to refocus its development area on a different location or meet its end.
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Wind power has long been a source of renewable energy, as evidenced by the many windmills of centuries past. The flow of air is used to run wind turbines, some of which can produce up to 5 megawatts of power. The most common wind turbines for renewable energy used commercially produce between 1.5 and 3 megawatts. The renewable energy that a wind turbine gives off is derived by the cube of the speed of the wind. As the speed of the wind increases the power that the turbine puts out increases almost exponentially. In places where wind is strong and nearly continual such as at high altitudes and offshore are the best places to locate wind farms.

Wind is the fastest growing source of power through any of the renewable energy resources and technologies. In the past ten years, the maximum capacity of wind power installed the world over went from a 1992 high of 2500 megawatts to a high of 40,000 in 2003 and continued to grow each year after that by another 30 percent.

This shows no signs of abating. Due to wind being an intermittent energy resource most wind turbines in the European Union only produce an average of one fourth of the power they are actually capable of. Under favourable wind conditions, however, some reach 35 percent or more. In winter the EU realizes a higher load factor. What this means is that wind as a renewable energy in Europe typically has a capacity for 5 megawatts maximum per turbine but regularly produces 1.7 megawatts.

The long term potential for wind as a reliable renewable energy resource throughout the global is probably about five times what it currently produces and forty times what is currently demanded of it. Large pieces of land that are not now being used for wind turbines could easily do so, especially in high wind areas. The offshore areas, where wind is nearly twice as fast and dependable as that of inshore land masses could be increased substantially as renewable wind energy sources.

The strength of the wind near the surface of the earth varies considerably and scientists cannot assure that the earth would have continuous renewable wind energy there unless it was combined with other sources of energy or stored in some way. Some suggest that 1000 megawatts of the capacity for conventional wind gathering could be counted on to produce 333 megawatts of power that is continuous.

This could change as our technology evolves, but most experts suggest using wind in the context of a renewable energy system that has an expansive capacity for reserving the energy. Examples of these would be hydro power, desalination plants, reserve loads and the mitigation of the economic impact of variability of resources.

Not only is wind power a renewable energy, but like other renewable energies it gives off no harmful greenhouse gases while being operated – no methane, no carbon dioxide. The one negative of wind power is that bats and birds get caught up in the turbines and get killed. Wind turbines should, therefore, be built where this impact would be least felt.

Source: Sustainable Living Articles