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What is Wind Power

Wind power can be an excellent complement to a solar power system. Generally when the sun isn't shining, the wind is blowing. Wind power is especially helpful in the winter to capture both the ferocious and gentle mountain winds during the times of least sunlight and highest power use. In most locations wind is not suitable as the ONLY source of power--it simply fills in the gaps left by solar power quite nicely. The wind is perhaps the most unpredictable and unwieldy source of power we can use. The 'fuel' is the wind, and there is no controlling it, you need to take what's there and hopefully protect the system when things get out of hand. Imagine a gas powered generator with no throttle control--one moment it stops, the next moment its running full speed--and you need to figure out how to use the power that's coming out, and figure out how to keep the engine from blowing up when the throttle gets pushed up a little too high! All good wind turbines have some system to protect themselves in high winds. Mountain View Solar & Wind works exclusively with Southwest Windpower, the world's leading producer of small wind turbines. Since 1987, they have pioneered new technologies to make renewable energy simple. One of the most popular wind generators is the Skytream 3.7 Think of a Skystream 3.7 as any other household appliance. After your dealer installs it and connects it to your electric meter, you’re done. Nothing changes inside your house. Your Skystream works in tandem with your electric utility to power your house. When the wind isn’t blowing, the utility supplies your electricity. But when it’s windy out, your Skystream pivots to catch the best wind and provides clean, quiet electricity. When it generates more electricity than you need, your meter can actually spin backwards—which means you’re essentially selling electricity back to the utility. The use of wind energy has been around for well over a thousand years. Its uses are only limited by the mind. However, there are certain physics that guide us on what it can and cannot do. People have often dreamed of a small device that can be installed on the roof of a house, which can provide all the needed energy. What is not understood by the non-technical are its limits. Like anything in nature, there are limits to what is possible. What is a wind generator? The proper name of a wind generator is actually “Wind Energy Converter” that being a device that converts the potential energy in the wind to another form of energy. This can either be mechanical or electrical. How does the wind generator work? When the wind blows, the rotor blade stops a percentage of the wind. That percentage is what is converted into energy. According to physics, the maximum amount of wind energy that can be converted is 59.3%. This is known as the Betz Limit.