Cons of Wind Energy

• Wind turbines can get damaged or completely destroyed when hit by a heavy storm or a severe lightning.
• Wind energy helps to solve the electricity problems up to a large extent, but it does not eliminate it completely. It therefore signifies that, we still need to come up with other better options.
• Wind does not necessarily flow in the same speed all the time. Therefore, the production of electricity would not always remain consistent, there might be ups and downs in its production, depending upon the speed of the wind. This inconsistency in electricity production affects its supply in the nearby high demand areas like cities and towns

· There have been instances in the past, when the rotating blades of the turbines have proved fatal for birds that happened to hit it.

• Wind turbines, on an average make a sound of about 50-60 decibel. Slower the wind's speed, larger is the sound produced.
• In recent times, some people have claimed that wind turbines lower the aesthetic beauty of the land! However, I think that, it is a matter of individual perception and not everyone looks at things in the same way.
• There is no other way of storing wind energy other than using batteries.
• Wind turbines cannot be installed just about anywhere. You need to place in areas with receives enough wind speed to make proper use of your turbine and to generate enough energy.

How Electricity Is Produced

http://www.energyefficientchoices.com/cb/diy-renewable-energy/how-electricity-produced.html

The largest amount of electricity produced today has its source in fossil fuels, nuclear fission, water, and wind.

Electrical energy was one of man's greatest discoveries. It has helped build new civilizations. The large amount of electricity produced has its source in fossil fuels, nuclear fission, water, and wind. This article will explore the different methods of electricity production. Electricity is churned out by enormous turbines. These turbines need a support to be moved. There are various ways of moving these turbines: By burning fossil fuels: Electricity is produced when the blades of a turbine are moved by enormous amounts of vapour. This vapour is generated by heating a lot of water in huge furnaces. The water is heated by burning fossil fuels like coal, petroleum, and natural gas. This method releases enormous amounts of carbon dioxide in the air, thus severely polluting our atmosphere. It is important to turn to alternative methods of electricity production for long-term benefits. By water: You must have heard how dams are constructed to produce electricity. A popular method to produce electricity, water dams serves two purposes: restricting water bodies and producing electricity. Water dams use the river water to move turbines, helping them produce electricity. Electricity generated this way helps control air pollution; however, this method of electricity production adversely affects the ecosystem in the water bodies. Water accounts for 90 percent of the world's electricity generated through renewable resources. By wind: Electricity is produced when wind energy is converted to electrical energy. Wind mills or wind turbines are used to churn up enormous amounts of wind energy which is then converted into electrical energy. The latest in wind energy advancement tells us that wind energy is helping create portable cell phone chargers. By nuclear fission: Yes, nuclear fission does not only make atom bombs, but also helps produce electricity. Nuclear fission causes a chain reaction where the element Uranium is bombarded by neutrons causing it to split. Every time a Uranium nucleus is split, more neutrons are released, causing more splits in the already split Uranium nuclei. The resultant chain reaction generates a lot of heat which is used to heat water the vapour of which eventually moves turbines to create electricity. By bio-waste: With technological advancements, electricity is also being produced by bio-waste. Bio-gas is a typical way of generating electricity in rural areas in countries like India. In fact, a new technology evolved in the state of Bihar in India that uses human waste to generate electricity.  

http://www.energyquest.ca.gov/story/chapter06.html

Thermal power plants have big boilers that burn a fuel to make heat. A boiler is like a teapot on a stove. When the water boils, the steam comes through a tiny hole on the top of the spout. The moving steam makes a whistle that tells you the water has boiled. In a power plant, the water is brought to a boil inside the boiler, and the steam is then piped to the turbine through very thick pipes.

In most boilers, wood, coal, oil or natural gas is burned in a firebox to make heat. Running through the fire box and above that hot fire are a series of pipes with water running through them. The heat energy is conducted into the metal pipes, heating the water in the pipes until it boils into steam. Water boils into steam at 212 degrees Fahrenheit or 100 degrees Celsius.

Coal is the energy source that is burned to heat the water in the boilers of this plant.

The steam is fed under high pressure to the turbine. The turbine spins and its shaft is connected to a turbogenerator that changes the mechanical spinning energy into electricity.

Turbine fans are placed inside the turbine housing. The turbine has many hundreds of blades that are turned at an angle like the blades of a fan. When the steam hits the blades they spin the turbine's shaft that is attached to the bottom of the blades.

After the steam goes through the turbine, it usually goes to a cooling tower outside where the steam cools off. It cools off and becomes water again. When the hot pipes come into contact with cool air, some water vapor in the air is heated and steam is given off above the cooling towers. That's why you see huge white clouds sometimes being given off by the cooling towers. It's not smoke, but is water vapor or steam. This is not the same steam that is used inside the turbine.

The cooled water then goes back into the boiler where it is heated again and the process repeats over and over.

Most power plants in California use cleaner-burning natural gas to produce electricity. Others use oil or coal to heat the water. Nuclear power plants use nuclear energy to heat water to make electricity. Still others, called geothermal power plants, use steam or hot water found naturally below the earth's surface without burning a fuel.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-16