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Wind power: Difference between revisions
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(Created page with "thumb|A wind turbine Wind power is a possible option for renewable energy. Wind turbines convert wind to electricity. <small>A lot of people incorrectly call wind turbines "windmills". But in fact windmills are a much older technology, which use the wind to mill grains ''mechanically'' (no electricity involved).</small> ==Intermittency== Wind power is even more intermittent than solar. There can be weeks where the wind blows strong{...") |
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Wind power is even more intermittent than [[solar]]. There can be weeks where the wind blows strong{{x|although if it blows ''too'' strong, power also can't be generated - more on this later}}, and weeks where it barely blows at all. | Wind power is even more intermittent than [[solar]]. There can be weeks where the wind blows strong{{x|although if it blows ''too'' strong, power also can't be generated - more on this later}}, and weeks where it barely blows at all. | ||
Having multiple wind farms might ''somewhat'' reduce the intermittency. But in practice, this doesn't seem to help much. | Having multiple wind farms might ''somewhat'' reduce the intermittency. But in practice, this doesn't seem to help much.<ref>David JC McKay, Sustainable energy - without the hot air [Online], Available: http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/withouthotair/c26/page_187.shtml</ref> | ||
<ref>David JC McKay, Sustainable energy - without the hot air [Online], Available: http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/withouthotair/c26/page_187.shtml</ref> | |||
===Energy storage=== | |||
Maybe wind power could be stored via [[ | Scaling up [[energy storage]] is already a challenge, even for solar which only needs about a day's worth of energy storage in general. Wind might need several weeks worth. | ||
Maybe wind power could be stored via [[hydrogen]], which doesn't have a ''fixed capacity'' the way batteries do. {{x|A battery can only store a fixed amount of energy at any given time. But hydrogen could be produced and stockpiled if necessary (as long as [[hydrogen gas/safety|safety]] concerns are addressed). Hydrogen production units (electrolyzers) still have a fixed ''power'' rating: There's a limit to how much hydrogen can be produced ''per unit of time''.}} [[wind/hydrogen|This has its own challenges.]] | |||
==Suitable wind speeds== | ==Suitable wind speeds== | ||
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sections to add: | sections to add: | ||
* viability: how much land is suited, how it can coexist with agriculture, how much energy can be captured per unit of land | * viability: how much land is suited, how it can coexist with agriculture, how much energy can be captured per unit of land, capacity factors, etc | ||
* designs: wind turbine types, with their pros and cons and pictures | * designs: wind turbine types, with their pros and cons and pictures | ||
* something about rare-earth magnets{{qn}} | * something about rare-earth magnets{{qn}} | ||
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