Windmills or Wind Turbines as an Alternative Source of Energy

Many people today are spending quantities of money for the electric bill without knowing that their hurting their wallet and their environment. It harms the environment because the fuel you receive in your electric bill is called traditional, which is made of fossil fuels. These fossil fuels create pollution in the air affecting our ozone layer. A solution for this problem would be to leave the traditional fuel and enter to the new world of alternative energy.

My alternative energy is wind energy which is caused by wind turbines or windmills. The windmill has been used for many years in history. Windmills, according to AE Wind Turbines, are used to generate electricity from the kinetic power of the wind. According to Trufts Now, depending on the speed of the windmill, it affects the production of electricity from the windmill. The article claims that if a windmill rotates slowly, then it produces less power, but if the wind speed doubles, then the windmill will produce eight times more power than in normal conditions. The windmills contain two main two main kind of wind generators, the vertical and horizontal axis.

There are three main fossil fuels in the world: coal, natural gas, and oil. These fossil fuels helped create one of the oldest traditional fuel named Hydroelectric Power. According to USGS, in 2006 the US had about 7% of total power produced by hydroelectric plants. A hydroelectric power is used to turn a turbine, which then turns a metal shaft in an electric generator, which it produces energy. A hydroelectric plant uses falling water to turn a turbine. The hydroelectric theory is to build a dam on a large river that has a large drop in elevation in which it stores lots of water behind it reservoir. The shaft of turbine goes up into the generator, which produces the power. Hydroelectric plants are more efficient at providing for peak power demands during short periods, and a way of doing this is by using “pumped storage”, which reuses the same water more than once. This traditional fuel may not use as much of fossil fuels, but it does release many greenhouse gases.

As for many things, the windmill has its advantages and disadvantages in producing energy. If you have a windmill an advantage would be that the wind is free, so no worry expenses, and with modern technology it can be captured efficiently. But the disadvantage would be that the strength of the wind is not constant and your electricity would vary, which means that the windmills do not produce the same amount of electricity all the time.