Wind Power

Hello everyone, I trust that you have had a safe and happy new year thus far!

I just wanted to post on a project that I am working on in conjunction with my dad and cousin's renewable energy projects, generating electricity from wind powered turbines. As an engineering major I naturally was interested in the idea of renewable energy projects and have participated in a few on campus this past semester. So far this project proved to be more challenging then any school project I have participated in, mainly because I entered the realm of advanced physics. Right now I am still working on my lower division math and science classes so it was a real brain workout. Since I did not want to just sit around all winter break I started designing a wind turbine.

OK, so how does a wind turbine generate electricity? Wind is essentially air in movement, and air is made up of zillions and trillions of molecules. Molecules have a mass, meaning, even though these molecules are microscopic they weigh something. All these molecules together, just on your body alone, is about 15 pounds of force--that's a bowling ball sitting on every square inch of our bodies! So when the air moves it creates a huge amount of energy.This force pushes against the propeller blades of the turbine rotating a shaft with gears, which in turn creates an electrical charge through an electromagnetic generator housed in the rear end of the turbine head. The generator translates the energy in the wind into electricity. It is really cool stuff, I can hardly wait to start building.

I just finished a schematic of what my system will look like. The hardest part was in designing the generator. What was most frustrating, was trying to find the right size components for my generator so that way it would be able to generate enough power to at least, during my preliminary test period, be able to power a 200 watt kitchen aid counter top mixer. I believe I have found, the items but i wont know for sure till I test it.

Anyway I will keep you all posted as to how the testing goes. If you have any comments, questions, concerns or even suggestions do not hesitate to send them in.

Adios!

Matthew