Where are the best places to put wind turbines to efficiently produce electricity?
367698
I would suggest locating wind turbines on out of service off shore oil platforms.
815781
Good question.\n\nThere seem to be many other sources of energy but they seem to be expensive to obtain or to require large amounts of land to be dedicated to crop growth or for collectors.  This is in itself a type of inefficiency. \n\nIn the long term prices may come down but energy such as crop based gasoline alternatives don't seem to me like they would cut it with a growing demand for gas their will be a growing demand for the amount of land that must be dedicated to its production. not to mention the population is growing and its not going to stop.\n\nIf we move toward becoming almost entirely dependent upon alternative energy we must move towards harnessing different kinds of power and not just search for one solution.\n\nA lot of money would be lost from a lot of big companies.\n\nFor instance there is a windmill type device you can purchase for your home needs right now for around $10,000 it is highly efficient\nand supposedly super quiet.  It is said to be able to generate between 30% to all of a homes energy needs depending on where you live. If too much energy is generated the excess may be sold back to the electrical company.  \n\nIf you could purchase three of these at the hefty price of $30,000 you could theoretically not ever have to pay a power bill again in some places or pay almost no bill at all. The electrical companies services could be utilized as a form of backup power.  \n\nIf everyone had these wind collectors this would certainly shrink the electrical power industry.\n\nThere is no information available to me about how much it can cost to repair these items or how well they can withstand the event of a hurricane or tornado. \n\nBut I dont think think alternative energy is a pipe dream it is just something that is going to take a large investment to start up and develop towards higher levels of performance and efficiency. \n\nThe engineering of rugged devices will have to play a large role and does currently, however, a lot of trial and error needs to occur to see what works where and why and what got destroyed by random acts of god and the forces of nature and how that can be prevented.\n\nShould things begin to look rather good for alternative energy... and it seems things look better day by day... energy companies would have to begin facing downsizing and new business models and perhaps invest themselves into the production of alternative energy or alternative energy generating devices for sale to the public.  Either way at some point they wont be the economic giants they have been to this point and thats probably gonna keep them from helping.\n\nAlternative energy will only be a pipe dream if people are afraid to nurture it and harness the energies available. This is something that is and will be heavily influenced by politics.\n\nOn another note, I think that nuclear power seems to be an "easy way out" but I don't believe that it is a good or secure solution.  There have been so many nuclear mishaps you dont hear about and so much waste that you cant prevent or do anything about. Aside from alternative energy being developed for fear of a lack of oil I also thought a large part of it was moving towards a cleaner earth. Moving towards nuclear power and nuclear waste is dangerous for everyone.  Radiation does not simply go away it is corruption of matter and it is "contagious".  Sure we could maybe launch it off into space, but should something go wrong on the way out of here we would face yet another type of radiological disaster.
822817
the above one of solar cell is gr8\nor you can make a model of a wind mill, attach it to a motor and then, artificially, rotate it to produce current in the motor and connect it to a small bulb to show it lighting
574849
I think I would go with windmills, solar panels might be too much technology for an Amish technology.
76664
PicoTurbine is the only kit of its kind: a complete, electricity-producing wind turbine you can build yourself.\n\ncheck out the FAQ (frequently asked questions) link below. You can also contact them directly to find out the answers to your questions
776212
Solar energy companies have gotten a lot of press, but I am much more interested in wind energy companies.  Also, I am nervous about new IPOs in solar energy.  There are already some good solar energy companies out there, like Suntech (STP) - this is a Chinese company, and Evergreen (ESLR).  For wind energy, I own the following stocks: Vestas (VWSYF.pk) and Tower Tech (TWRT.ob).  Vestas is the world's #1 maker of wind turbines.  Tower Tech makes wind tower support structures.\n\nHere is an article on investing in wind:\n\nhttp://www.top10traders.com/ViewPost.aspx?postID=61\n\nThis article is from http://www.top10traders.com - this is a free site that lets you create a portfolio of stocks with $100,000 in "play" money.  Each day the site ranks the best performing portfolios, so you can see how your picks perform compared to other investors.  You can also read posts on investing from the best traders, as well as share your own investing ideas.\n\nHere are this month's best traders:\n\nhttp://www.top10traders.com/Top10Standings.aspx\n\nGood luck!
59656
Solar Tower Systems\n\nThese systems produce electricity on a large scale. They are unique among solar technologies because they can store energy efficiently and cost effectively. They can operate whenever the customer needs power, even after dark or during cloudy weather.\n\nPower towers operate by focusing a field of thousands of mirrors onto a receiver located at the top of a centrally located tower. The receiver collects the sun's heat in a heat-transfer fluid, which is used to generate steam for a conventional steam turbine located at the foot of the tower for production of electricity.\n\nBased on other companies experiences with solar tower applications, which used water/steam as the heat-transfer fluid, our engineers determined that power towers would operate more efficiently using molten salt. The salt would have the further advantage of providing a practical way to store the heat.\n\nDuring operation, the salt is heated to more than 565°C and stored in a tank next to the tower. When electricity production is needed, the hot salt is pumped from this "hot" storage tank to the steam generator. \nPower towers also have distinct advantages over conventional power plants. Like all solar technologies, they consume no fuel, so they do not pollute the environment. Similarly, they are capital intensive but cost little to operate.
355681
I have studied this issue in the past and found the wind powered turbines online through a simple Froogle search.  Here's the link to the Alternative Energy Store:\n\nhttp://shop.altenergystore.com/items.asp?Cc=WINDGEN&CatMoveby=0&Nbm=&Pbm=&FromNav=
246384
Windmill making is very easy. \n\nTake a small fan like structure. The fan should be connected to a vertical poll. The fan spin should be connected to a cycle dynamo. This can be done using a hard rubber band. (Something similar to the rice mill). The dynamo inturn can connect to a light. \n\nBut if you have a prejudice that a small windmill can produce enough electricity to light up your house, it is wrong. Windpower is one of the less efficient power sources. \nWindpower < Hydro electric power < Coal power < Diesel power < Nuclear power.
801669
There is a lot of possibilities starting from the simplest one which is wind generator.  More complicated would be water generation where a usually dam is build and potential energy of the water accumulated behind the dam moves water through turbines and generates power. Some other may include thermal energy of the earth. If you drill deep enough you will get to the earth crust zone where temperature is high to produce steam and this steam is converted (generated) into the electric power. Ocean waves are also source to generate energy.
456954
Ok here ya go!\n\n In 2005, worldwide capacity of wind-powered generators was 58,982 MW, their production making up less than 1% of world-wide electricity use. Although still a relatively minor source of electricity for most countries, wind power generation more than quadrupled between 1999 and 2005.\n\nMost modern wind power is generated in the form of electricity by converting the rotation of turbine blades into electrical current by means of an electrical generator. In windmills (a much older technology) wind energy is used to turn mechanical machinery to do physical work, like crushing grain or pumping water.\n\nWind power is used in large scale wind farms for national electrical grids as well as in small individual turbines for providing electricity in isolated locations.\n\nWind energy is abundant, inexhaustible, widely distributed, clean, and mitigates the greenhouse effect.\n\nAn estimated 1 to 3 % of energy from the Sun that hits the earth is converted into wind energy. This is about 50 to 100 times more energy than is converted into biomass by all the plants on earth through photosynthesis. Most of this wind energy can be found at high altitudes where continuous wind speeds of over 160 km/h (100 mph) occur. Eventually, the wind energy is converted through friction into diffuse heat all through the earth's surface and atmosphere.\n\nThe origin of wind is simple. The earth is unevenly heated by the sun resulting in the poles receiving less energy from the sun than the equator does. Also the dry land heats up (and cools down) more quickly than the seas do. The differential heating powers a global atmospheric convection system reaching from the earth's surface to the stratosphere which acts as a virtual ceiling.\n\nThe change of seasons, change of day and night, the Coriolis effect, the irregular albedo (reflectivity) of land and water, humidity, and the friction of wind over different terrain are some of the factors which complicate the flow of wind over the surface.
262637
The best way is to build nuclear power plants. Duke Power of North Carolina has already built several. The modern world must have energy. There are several sources of energy of which coal and other fossil fuels is one. Nuclear is another.  There is also wind, solar, tides. Even gravitation--hydroelectric being an example.
438034
i have no clue, not sure what this competition would be anyways, might want to include the goal of what the windmil will do, what size is it going to be...\n\ni'd say research with like those windmill powerplants, they are shaped like HUGE propellers i think, i'm sure that would provide alot of torque and be efficent.\n\nthe companies making those windmill powerplants put LOTS of money into research to figure out how they can have their designs make the most electricy, so researching what they have found would probably help your project
368150
if you want a huge turbine in your back yard, you could try using the wind for your energy
396028
Wind is a reliable energy source and the studies of its use is taking off. Wind energy system converts the power of the wind into turning a turbine which generates electricity.\n\nWind energy is starting to be more economical based on the conversion factor. It is growing at a rate of 37%. The cost of wind power has dropped 5 times over a period of about 8yr's.\nTruly a very good source of energy which can replace fossil fuel.\n\nRead the following for all the facts and figures on Wind Power.
211399
Wave energy is used for electricity A line of floats are given a certain shape like an aeroplane wing placed in a pivoting position over water, as a wave hits one side it lifts and passes under lowering it this reciprocal action,in turn, turns a generator which in turn creates electrical power.
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The world's first megawatt-size wind turbine on Grandpa's Knob, Castleton, VermontWind machines were used for grinding grain in Persia as early as 200 B.C. This type of machine was introduced into the Roman Empire by 250 A.D. By the 14th century Dutch windmills were in use to drain areas of the Rhine River delta. In Denmark by 1900 there were about 2500 windmills for mechanical loads such as pumps and mills, producing an estimated combined peak power of about 30 MW. The first windmill for electricity production was built in Cleveland, Ohio by Charles F. Brush in 1888, and in 1908 there were 72 wind-driven electric generators from 5 kW to 25 kW (7-34 hp). The largest machines were on 24 m (79 ft) towers with four-bladed 23 m (75 ft) diameter rotors.\n\nBy the 1930s windmills were mainly used to generate electricity on farms, mostly in the United States where distribution systems had not yet been installed. In this period, high tensile steel was cheap, and windmills were placed atop prefabricated open steel lattice towers. A forerunner of modern horizontal-axis wind generators was in service at Yalta, USSR in 1931. This was a 100 kW (130 hp) generator on a 30 m (100 ft) tower, connected to the local 6.3 kV distribution system. It was reported to have an annual load factor of 32 per cent, not much different from current wind machines.\n\nIn 1941 the world's first megawatt-size wind turbine was connected to the local electrical distribution system on Grandpa's Knob in Castleton, Vermont, USA. This 1.25 MW (1,680 hp) Smith-Putnam turbine operated for 1100 hours before a blade failed at a known weak point, which had not been reinforced due to war-time material shortages. In the 1940s, the U.S. had a rural electrification project that killed the natural market for wind-generated power, since network power distribution provided a farm with more dependable usable energy for a given amount of capital investment.\n\nIn the 1970s many people began to desire a self-sufficient life-style. Solar cells were too expensive for small-scale electrical generation, so some turned to windmills. At first they built ad-hoc designs using wood and automobile parts. Most people discovered that a reliable wind generator is a moderately complex engineering project, well beyond the ability of most romantics. Some began to search for and rebuild farm wind-generators from the 1930s, of which Jacobs wind generators were especially sought after.\n\n The NASA/DOE 7.5 megawatt Mod-2 three turbine cluster in Goodnoe Hills, Washington in 1981From the mid 1970's through the mid 1980's the United States government worked with industry to advance the technology and enable large commercial wind turbines. This effort was led by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) at the Lewis Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio and was an extraordinarily successful government research and development activity. With funding from the National Science Foundation and later the Department of Energy (DOE), a total of 13 experimental wind turbines were put into operation including four major wind turbine designs. This research and development program pioneered many of the multi-megawatt turbine technologies in use today, including: steel tube towers, variable-speed generators, composite blade materials, partial-span pitch control, as well as aerodynamic, structural, and acoustic engineering design capabilities. The large wind turbines developed under this effort set several world records for diameter and power output. The Mod-2 wind turbine cluster produced a total of 7.5 megawatt of power in 1981. In 1987, the Mod-5B was the largest single wind turbine operating in the world with a rotor diameter of nearly 100 meters and a rated power of 3.2 megawatts. It demonstrated an availability of 95 percent, an unparalleled level for a new first-unit wind turbine. The Mod-5B had the first large-scale variable speed drive train and a sectioned, two-blade rotor