Renewable and Inexhaustible Energy Sources: Wind Power
For over two thousand years, mankind has harnessed the wind for power in one way or another. The first uses were for water travel, by letting manufactured sails catch the wind and allow the boats or vessels to travel seamlessly across the water. Eventually, it was realized that the wind all around the world will not run out, it is a semi-constant force. Therefore, wind started to be used to power other things; mainly for farms and small workshops, wind power was harnessed using the old-fashioned windmill. They were primarily used to pump water from wells, and some to grind grains down to a fine consistency. Today, there are many other uses for wind power. As an ever-growing society, we have realized that the resources we rely on day to day will not always be around, i.e. oil, so we have harnessed wind power to our advantage, because like our early ancestors also realized, the forces of wind will never be depleted.
With the widespread development of electric power in the early 20th century, wind power found new applications in sending power remotely from a centrally-generated power source. Throughout the century, small wind plants suitable for farms or residences were soon built, and also larger utility-scale wind generators were produced so they could be connected to electricity grids for a greater remote use of power. Out here in West Texas, we rely heavily on wind powers because the wind is an abundant force of nature to us. From around Sweetwater, Texas to Midland, the highway areas are seemingly littered with giant wind turbines that harness and save the created electrical energy for uses of businesses and homes. The first modern creation of the wind turbine can date back to the middle of the 20th century, even though characteristics can be found from many older windmills. In 1957 Johannes Juul installed a 24 m diameter wind turbine at Gedser, which ran from 1957 until 1967. This was a three-bladed, horizontal-axis, upwind, stall-regulated turbine similar to those now used for commercial wind power development (Cleveland 426). When the oil crises began in the 1970’s, scientists frantically searched for an alternative for petroleum power, and decided on more aggressively using the wind power turbines to power homes and businesses.
The turbines as we know them are not just used out here in the flat and windy West Texas region. They are used essentially all over the world, as major European countries and some regions of Asia are as well. Wind power is everywhere, as wind is created by differences in pressure gradients. It is caused by the uneven heating of the Earth's surface by the sun (EIA), as air particles move from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration, and the mixtures creates the swirling wind that we know. The underlying reason that we have so much wind out here is that we are between two different regions of the continental United States, so the wind pressures from the mountains to the forested areas and plains meet here, and we get all of the wind power. Turbines are not only a source of power for potentially millions of people, but they also show the genius and ingenuity of the modern times. Our society has progressed so much in the forms of modern technology in the 20th century, so using the natural forces to our advantage has proven more useful with every oil drill that pops up. Unfortunately, oil is not a renewable resource like wind power is, so eventually, there will not be any left. However, wind is created naturally every single day, so there is no worry that the wind turbines will become useless in a few decades.
Since the United States uses many various means of energy, we are not completely dependent on wind power alone. This means that while we have numerous wind turbines up and running in our plains, there may be a need for many more later down the line when other resources are either running low or are depleted. A recent study suggested that wind farms would need to occupy 16,000 square miles to produce only 20% of the electrical demand for the United States (Litowitz 114). Thankfully, many scientist teams are experimenting with many other alternatives, such as hydrogen cars and the electricity created by water in dams that have been in use for many years. With the changing times, and our increasing amount of resources used, the need for alternatives will be evident very soon, so harnessing inexhaustible energy sources such as our wind power, will provide electricity for our area, without harming our ecosystem or using even more resources that cannot be renewed.
Works Cited:
< Cleveland, C. J. (2004). History of wind energy. In Encyclopedia of Energy (Vol. 6, p. 426). Elsevier Science. >
< Energy Information Administration. (n.d.). Renewable wind. Retrieved from http://www.eia.gov/kids/energy.cfm?page=wind_home-basics-k.cfm >
< Litowitz, L. S. (2012). Energy, power, and transportation technology. (2nd ed., pp. 111-114). Tinley Park, Illinois: Goodheart-Willcox Company. >
