World’s Largest Wind Turbines
June 2, 2008 – 11:05 pm
The largest wind turbines are designed to be self-contained power plants, outputting electricity directly to the utility grid just like large coal, hydro or nuclear power plants.
In some cases, these wind machines are grouped together in ‘wind farms’ with a nearby power substation to handle the electricity pumped out by the machines. Wind power is the single fastest growing energy source worldwide, although it currently comprises a very small portion of global energy supply - 0.051% as of 2003 according to the International Energy Association, but with growth rates of over 50% per year since then
The comparison of old fashioned wind-mills to electrical wind turbines is like the comparison of a car to a gasoline generator - one is designed to produce motion while the other is designed to produce electricity, but both use the same fuel. A wind turbine simply uses the mechanical energy captured in its spinning motion to produce electricity, for charging a battery or powering an electrical device directly.
The appropriate size of a wind turbine depends on two factors — (1) the amount of energy needed and (2) the amount of wind energy available. For small wind users, a single residence will likely need a turbine capacity between 1 and 5 kW. Farms or businesses will require at least 10 kW and perhaps as much as 50 kW, depending on the size and types of machines you have on site.
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