This article is a translation from a French article. The original article has been published in a student’s journal. It is part of a column named “Daily Physics”, published bi-monthly for two years long.
Among the power plants, we’ve seen in previous papers that electricity can be produced by turning an alternator with the help of water vapor. A way to produce this vapor is to get the water boiling with some fuel. This one can be polemical, like fossil fuels, or the byproducts of the fuel, like nuclear fission byproducts.
Today, we are going to address a way to produce electricity without any fuel, with the help of wind power. Indeed, Earth is a dynamical system. More than just turning on itself, the different points of Earth are receiving solar energy differently, inducing thermal differences around the globe. Those differences are causing pressure differences for gases, according the Ideal Gas Law. The heathen air will tend to go higher and produce low pressure zones. In opposition, the colder air will tend to get down and produce high pressure zones. The air will fly from high pressure zones to low pressure zones, conjointly being influenced by Coriolis’ spin : Earth spinning on itself. This flow is at the basis of wind.
A Wind Turbine is constituted of three paddles, generally three. Those paddles are constructed to spin under the wind influence, taking a part (dW) of its work (W). This work is dependent of Wind’s kinetic energy, directly correlated to its speed. The paddles spin, getting the alternator to turn, hence producing electricity. The nominal power of a wind turbine can be about 800 kW or 2000 kW, about 6.87% or 17.19% tonnes of oil equivalent in one hour – The energy produced by the combustion of one tonne of oil. The wind turbines are however criticized for their price, for their impact on environmental beauty, or for their sonorous nuisance.
