What to do if there is no wind to turn a wind turbine?

October 12th, 2009

Bells asked:


Me and friend are doing a project on wind power and we need to know what you would do if you use a wind turbine for electricity and there isn’t enough wind to spin the turbine. Need an answer ASAP!!

Hilary

Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: , ,

«
»

2 Comments

  1. Alec October 13th, 2009

    Hermelinda

    1) At any particular time, energy production is usually never equal to energy consumption.

    There will be times when you produce too much (wind blowing hard and production exceeds consumption.)

    There will be times when you do not produce enough (wind not blowing.)

    Why not find a way to store the excess energy to use during the times when not enough energy is being produced? (Battery?)

    2) People noticed that when there is no wind, it is usually very hot and sunny out, and when it is very windy, it tends to be cloudy and overcast.

    Couple the wind turbine with a solar collector.

    However, this does not help you at all if it is not windy at night — so you still need some way to store the excess energy when production exceeds demand.

  2. KELLIE October 13th, 2009

    Heather

    Generally, wind turbines are part of a network with other sorts of power generation. This means that when there is wind, the power is used (or stored) but when there isn’t wind, other sources create power. For example, in Germany, wind turbines make up about 2% of the grid, along with other types of power such as coal and nuclear (and perhaps tidal generation now too). In single home systems, wind and solar are often used together as they are fairly complimentary, although any system like this still needs batteries to store power for when it is dark AND still.

    If your assignment proposes having a wind turbine without any backup, make sure it is somewhere where you get a lot of wind – like the roaring forties ;)

Leave a comment