With the increase in global warming and running out of non-renewable resources, Wind Power is a major source of energy used to resolve all issues.
The kinetic energy of wind is harnessed and transformed into electricity with the mechanism of the wind turbine. However, the speed required for the process is on average 25 km/h.
The optimum places to develop wind farms are in coastal areas, at the top of hills, open plains, and gaps in mountains. A place where wind flow is strong proves to be the prime location for wind turbines.
- Wind Energy was first developed in Persia and China in around 200BC, with the help of windmills.
- In the 1940s in Vermont, the first modern wind turbine was built.
- The largest turbine is located in Hawaii which is twenty stories in height and each blade with the length of a football field.
- Turbines generally are 328 ft tall with each blade 260ft long. More advanced turbines have blades over 300ft long.
- Up to 2 MW of electricity can be produced by a large wind turbine this means that a maximum of 59.3% of wind’s kinetic energy can be transformed, according to Betz’s law.
- In reality, at 20 to 30 % of the efficiency rate does an average wind turbine operates.
Wind Power in Worldwide
At the end of 2019, the cumulative electricity generation from wind power on a worldwide scale amounts to 651GW.
According to the statistics of 2019, the top 5 countries with the highest cumulative wind capacity are
- China with 263,402 MW that is 36.3%
- United States with 105,466 MW that is 16.2%
- Germany with 61,357 MW that is 9.4%
- India with 37,506 MW that is 5.8%
- Spain with 25,808 MW that is 4.0%
Several countries have also achieved a high level of Wind Power by the year 2018 in the production of electricity
- Denmark – 41%
- Ireland – 28%
- Portugal – 24%
- Germany – 21%
- Spain – 19%
The top 5 countries with high installed wind power capacity by 2019 are
- China – 236,402 MW
- European Union – 192,020 MW
- United States – 105,466 MW
- Germany – 61,357 MW
- India – 37,506 MW
Wind Power statistics in the US
Over 530 wind turbine manufacturing facilities are all over the US which employs over 120,000 people.
With an average annual increase of 10%, wind capacity increased from 2010 to 2020 by 166%.
The US has a cumulative capacity of 107.4 GW with 59,900 utility-scale wind turbines installed.
From the early 1980s to 2018, the cost of wind projects declined from $ 3,330/kW to $ 1,470/kW.
The leading states in the US with high total wind capacity are Texas with 29,407 MW, Iowa with 10,644 MW, and Oklahoma with 8,173 MW.
The biggest wind farm in the US, the Alta Wind Energy Center is located in Kern County, California. It has a capacity of 1,550MW.
The US electricity generation increased from 7.4% in 2019 to 8.8% in 2020.
