Traditional & Modern Wind Power Uses

If you’ve taken a walk on a windy day, you’ll have experienced windpower first-hand.  Even a moderate wind can exert quite a bit of force.  It’s not surprising that windpower has been used for a very long time.  After all, windpower requires no fuel and it is free, so all you need to do is catch it and find a way of applying it.

Traditionally, windpower was used in:

• Windmills.  These were first discovered around 1100AD.  While the usual application of windpower in windmills is for grinding grain, windmills have also been used for sawing wood (the origin of the word “sawmill”,and  pumping water away from where it is unwanted or to places where it is wanted.  Windmills convert the lateral motion of windpower into rotary motion.
• Sails.  Windpower was the motive force behind global trade and naval powers for several centuries before the discovery of the steam engine.  When Britannia ruled the waves and when all the great explorers were searching out the hidden places of the globe, they did it all on windpower.  Anyone who’s ever done a little “messing about in boats” knows just how easy it is to catch the wind and use it to move a boat. Using windpower as the power source for transportation was not just confined to the seas; in China, windpower was used to move carts (land yachts).

Today, windpower is becoming important again.  While a return to the days of sail on the high seas isn’t likely (though this certainly would be an environmentally friendly and zero-emissions way of transporting non-perishable goods), windmills are being put to a new use.  The force of windpower is being harnessed to generate electricity.

Wind Energy into Electricity

Using windpower to generate electricity isn’t all that hard.  All you need for a basic generator is some way of producing constant rotational motion.  Windmills have the technology to provide constant rotational motion, so adapting a windmill to make a generator isn’t hard.

Windpower for electricity generation can be done on a large scale or on a small, domestic scale.  Large-scale windpower projects use enormous turbines (they’re so big that the arms or blades of the windmill look like they’ve been taken off a jumbo jet) and produce quite respectable amounts of electricity.  Often, mainstream electricity providers who are interested in using windpower will have several large turbines in suitable locations; these are called wind farms.

Here is a wind farm in action, generating electricity, which I saw from a train across Europe.

Domestic Wind Power

Domestic electricity generation using windpower tends to involve smaller windmills that look very much like the windmills that are used in the Australian outback to pump water from artesian wells.  These turbines can be placed on the roof of a house in the same way that solar panels or solar water heaters are, but they don’t have to be.  A wind generator/windmill can be placed anywhere on your property that isn’t sheltered from the prevailing winds.  

Before Installing Your Wind Power Generator…

Before you install a domestic windpower generator in your home, bear a few points in mind:

• Study your local weather patterns first to find out where the wind blows from most often.  Sometimes, two wind vectors are predominant, and your generator should be placed where it can get both.  As an example, where this writer lives, the strongest winds come from the northwest and the northeast, so a wind generator should be located to the north of the buildings.
• Don’t put your generator so high that you can’t reach it for servicing without lowering it.
• Get a tough enough generator for your local conditions.  Marine grade generators are the strongest.