Wind Turbine for Green Power

History of Wind Power Generation:

Schematic diagram for
 wind turbine power generation

Wind power has been in use for serving the mankind, since centuries through what has been popularly known as “Wind-mills.” There is no “electrical” stage of energy in old-styled uses where wind-velocity is directly used for performing the jobs such as wheat-grinding, pumping water for irrigation, sailing vessels, etc. It enjoys the advantages of being plentiful, inexhaustible, renewable and non-polluting, over and above being cheap for running costs. 

It suffers from disadvantages of being unreliable, and being economically un-viable for large power generation. In India, a large number of such units with normal and medium power ratings (up to 100 kW) are already in operation mainly in coastal or hilly areas. With the modern system, it is now preferred to have suitable power- control circuits on the output side of wind-generators so that these can pump energy into low voltage lines of the grid over a wide range of variation of wind speeds.

In early, people learn to use wind as a power sources, sailing boats or ships have been using wind power for at least 5,500 years. In 17^th century BC, the Babylonian emperor Hammurabi used wind power for irrigation work. Greek engineer Heron of Alexandria used wind to drive wheel to power for a machine in 1^st century AD, Ancient Tibet and China also learned to use wind power since 4^th century for speeding grain crushing and water pumping.

Development of Wind Power:

From antiquity, middle-ages to modern 21^th century; using of wind power changed widely, modern technology shaping wind power to generate electricity. In early 20^th century, Denmark did remarkable development in wind power to produce electricity, by 1908 there were 72 wind-driven electric generator having capacity 5kW to 25kW.  A gigantic change took place in 1978; multi megawatt wind turbine was constructed for first time. Now for magic action of modern technology many multinational companies are producing up to 10 mega-watts electric power from wind turbine.

Electricity Harvesting from Wind Power:

For harnessing wind power to produce electricity, modern technology contour the spinning turbine blades, which are shaped like the wings of an airplane, are used to crank a generator that converts the rotational force into electricity. Electricity then moves down trough electric cables to a transformer before moving through lines to a power station where it is stored or distributed for use. Typical wind speed 13 km/h to 90 km/h is required for spinning the turbine blade. The amount of energy produced is dependent on wind speed, altitude, the height of the tower and the size of the turbine blade.  For a  typical 2 mega-watts wind power plant: base tower weight about 132,000 kg, turbine blades weight 35,000 kg, blade sweeping area 5,000 square meter and weight of turbine about 230,000 kg.

World Biggest Wind Turbine:

Wind power generation is one of the clean powers generating procedure appreciated worldwide and emerged as one of the fastest growing renewable green energy sources in the world. We can explore some largest wind power plant in the world.

SEATITAN 10MW Wind Turbine:

The SeaTitan 10MW wind turbine designed by AMSC (American Energy Technologies Company) is the biggest wind turbine so far in the world. They started developing the turbine in 2010 and completed in 2012.  The 10MW capacity giant turbine which incorporated with much normaler and lighter HTS (High Temperature Superconductor) generator having 10rpm speed and driving power 12,000kVA.

The direct-drive turbine which technical specification as 190M rotor diameter, 50 Hz / 60 Hz grid frequency, 5° axis rotor tilt angle, 125 M hub height and cast iron conical tubular steel tower with integrated lightning conductor. Its operational rated wind speed is 11.5 m/s and lowest and highest cut-in wind speed 4 m/s & 30 m/s respectively. Survival temperature range is -20°C to 50°C.

Sway Turbine ST10:

The Norwegian Technology Company Sway designed and developed ST10 wind turbine which is the world second biggest wind turbine. Its power output is 10MW, rotor diameter is 164M and blade height is 67M. This turbine is suitable for both fixed and floating foundations.

Beside these biggest wind turbine another companies also developing competitive wind turbine and list of the biggest wind turbine becoming longer and longer, like- Areva 8MW, Vestas V164-8.0 MW, Enercon E-126/7.5 MW, Samsung S7.0-171, REpower 6.2M152 / REpower 6.2M126, Siemens SWT-6.0-154, Haliade 150-6MW and Sinovel SL6000  wind turbine etc.

Top Ten Wind Power Generating Countries 

Wind power generating rate increasing every year. Wind power one of the most available green energy sources. According to the Global Wind Energy Council report on 2014 the top ten wind power generating countries are as below:

1. China 114,763 Megawatts;
2. United States 65,879 Megawatts;
3. Germany had 39,165 Megawatts;
4. Spain  22,987 Megawatts;
5. India 22,465 Megawatts;
6. United Kingdom 12,440 Megawatts;
7. Canada 9,694 Megawatts;
8. France 2,500 Megawatts;
9. Italy 8,663 Megawatts;
10. Brazil 5,939 Megawatts.

Overall, total global capacity reached about 432,419 MW  what is representing cumulative growth of 17%; and experts are thinking green energy wind power generation be come much popular and increased near future.