RERL Fact Sheet 1 Wind Technology
RERL Fact Sheet 1 Wind Technology
RERL Fact Sheet 1 Wind Technology
Wind Power:
A wind turbines height is usually described as the height of the center of the rotor, or hub.
Size Ranges
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Technology
Introduction Wind Power Today Size ranges Vocabulary Power & Energy Sources for Teachers & Kids Nearby Wind Installations For More Info
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The Power from a Wind Turbine The power a turbine actually gets from the wind is: P = Cp
V3 A
You can see that we have added two things to the original equation of the power in the wind: Cp = the turbines power coefcient
Energy
is the ability to change oneself or ones surroundings
Power
is a rate of using or producing energy. Power = energy / time
where m stands for mass (in kg) and V stands for velocity (in m/s). This allows us to calculate the amount of power in moving air. The power of the wind passing perpendicularly through a circular area is: P = V3 A
Power (kW)
Where: P = the power of the wind (in Watts). = rho = the density of the air (in kg/m ) (1.225 kg/m3 for dry air at sea level)
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Units of Measure
A kilowatt-hour (kWh) is a unit of Energy
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V = the velocity of the wind measured in m/s A = r2 = the area swept by the circular rotor, in square meters, and = pi = 3.1416... r = the radius (half the diameter) of the rotor (in meters) Betzs Limit on what we can extract A wind turbine slows air down, but it cannot remove 100% of the airs kinetic energy obviously the air cannot stop completely, or else it would pile up behind the turbine. In 1919, German physicist Albert Betz gured out that the upper limit to the amount of energy you can capture from the wind is 16/27 or about 59%. In practice, all real wind turbines extract less than this hypothetical maximum.
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What does the power equation tell us? Even though we do not use the power equation to calculate power output of a particular turbine, the power equation tells us useful information about signicant factors that determine what we can get from a wind turbine: V3 : The power available in the wind is proportional to the cube of the wind speed. There is much more energy in high-speed winds than in slow winds. Small changes in wind speed make big changes in power. A : Power is proportional to the swept area, and to the square of the diameter. Doubling the diameter quadruples the available power. : Air density matters too. The lower density of warmer air, and air at higher altitudes somewhat reduces the power available in the wind.
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Mass. Technology Collaborative Mass. Renewable Energy Trust 75 North Drive Westborough, MA 01581 5088700312 www.mtpc.org/RenewableEnergy/ index.htm