Overview of wind power

Wind power is the conversion of the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. Wind energy is a clean and pollution-free renewable energy source. It has been used by people for a long time, mainly through windmills to pump water and grind noodles. People are interested in how to use wind to generate electricity.

The use of wind power is very environmentally friendly, and the wind energy is huge, so it is increasingly valued by countries all over the world.

Installed capacity

At the end of 2017, the installed capacity of grid-connected wind power was 163.67 million kilowatts, an increase of 10.5%.

At the end of 2018, the installed capacity of grid-connected wind power was 184.26 million kilowatts, an increase of 12.4%.

Wind power map

Wind is a new energy source with great potential. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, a violent wind swept across Britain and France destroyed 400 wind mills, 800 houses, 100 churches, and more than 400 sailing ships. Thousands of people were injured, and 250,000 big trees were uprooted. As far as pulling trees is concerned, the wind produces 10 million horsepower (that is, 7.5 million kilowatts; one horsepower is equal to 0.75 kilowatts) in a few seconds! Someone has estimated that the wind resources available for power generation on the earth are about There are 10 billion kilowatts, almost 10 times the world's hydroelectric power generation. The energy obtained by burning coal every year in the world is only one-third of the energy provided by wind power in a year. Therefore, both domestic and foreign countries attach great importance to using wind power to generate electricity and develop new energy sources.

Attempts to use wind power generation began as early as the beginning of the twentieth century. In the 1930s, Denmark, Sweden, the Soviet Union and the United States successfully developed some small wind power generation devices using rotor technology from the aviation industry. This kind of small wind turbine is widely used in windy islands and remote villages. The cost of electricity it obtains is much lower than that of a small internal combustion engine. However, the power generation at that time was low, mostly below 5 kilowatts.

Wind turbines on the grasslands of Inner Mongolia

Wind turbines on the grasslands of Inner Mongolia

It is understood that wind turbines of 15, 40, 45, 100, and 225 kilowatts have been produced abroad. In January 1978, the United States built a 200-kilowatt wind turbine in Clayton, New Mexico, with a blade diameter of 38 meters and generating enough electricity for 60 households. In the early summer of 1978, the wind power plant put into operation on the west coast of Jutland, Denmark, has a power generation capacity of 2,000 kilowatts. The windmill is 57 meters high. 75% of the power generation is sent to the grid, and the rest is used by a nearby school. .

In the first half of 1979, the United States built another windmill for generating electricity in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. The windmill is ten stories high and its steel blades are 60 meters in diameter. The blades are installed on a tower-shaped building, so the windmill can rotate freely and obtain electricity from any direction; when the wind speed is above 38 kilometers per hour, the power generation capacity is also Up to 2000 kilowatts. Since the average wind speed in this hilly area is only 29 kilometers per hour, all windmills cannot move. It is estimated that even if it operates only half of the year, it can meet 1% to 2% of the electricity needs of seven counties in North Carolina.