Wind Power

Wind Power

Wind mills have been around for centuries they were used to pump water from underground aquifers, to provide water for human and animal consumption. These wind mills also provided water for the steam locomotives, used to sawing logs for timber, grinding grains. As early as the 1900’s wind mills were used to generate electricity to charge a battery to supply electricity to run a small lamp or radio for several hours in the day. (Deal, 2010) These wind mills stand about twelve foot high and have many blades to catch more wind. With this being said I will now focus on a different type of wind mill known as a wind turbine which is used to convert the winds energy into kinetic energy. The height of a wind turbine on average in the United States is 399 feet tall the tower itself is 256 feet tall with a blade span of 116 feet. With new technology some wind turbines can reach over 400 feet high with a blade span of 143 feet. (Http:// wind-watch.org) My primary focus will be discussing both the advantages and disadvantages wind power has on our environment in such ways of controlling carbon dioxide emission that harm our environment, I will then look at ways these giant machines effect animal life, I will then discuss other environmental concerns such as construction on under developed land and offer my finale thoughts on wind power.

Before I discuss the advantages and disadvantages I am going to offer a short explanation of how these wind turbines generate electric. “The blades of the turbine are attached to a hub that is mounted on a turning shaft. The shaft goes through a gear transmission box where the turning speed is increased. The transmission is attached to a high speed shaft which turns a generator that makes electricity. In order for the wind turbine to work properly, wind speeds need to be above 14 miles per hour, in order to turn the turbines fast enough to generate electricity. Each wind turbines will produce about 50 to 300 kilowatts of...