Wind is powered by the sun. The sun heats the Earth to different temperatures in different locations at different times. As the sun warms the earth, it warms the air above making it less dense or lighter. As the lighter air rises, it creates a low pressure zone near the ground. Air from surrounding cooler areas rushes in to balance the pressure. These are called local winds.
Temperature differences between the polar caps and equator, as well as the rotation of the earth, produce similar results on a global scale, called prevailing winds.
“What is a small wind turbine?”
Small wind turbines (100 kilowatts) or less are generally referred to as “small wind” which gives you a clean way to produce electricity. Small wind can supplement the energy needed for a home or business. Wind energy can power a small community of homes. There are significant developments in small wind turbine markets in developed and developing countries. The UK witnessed a Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of over 65.3% between the period 2006-2010.
The applications of small wind turbines are limitless. Environmentally and economically sound and free from the increasing cost of fossil fuels. With wind energy, the cost of electricity is predictable because there are no escalating fuel costs. Investing in wind also helps us offset our use of other precious resources such as water. Petroleum based power production uses a tremendous amount of scarce water resources. As the American Wind Energy Association states, “Wind power uses less than 1/600 as much water per unit of electricity produced as does nuclear, and approximately 1/500 as much as coal.”
Real Time Wind Map
Updated hourly, this beautifully animated wind map, showing delicate tracery of wind flowing over the US was created by Fernanda Viégas and Martin Wattenberg of HINT.FM The surface wind data comes from the National Digital Forecast Database
http://ndfd.weather.gov/technical.htm
Urban Myth
There are many companies in the small wind industry claiming to produce energy in low wind regimes. Venger Wind turbines, like any other small wind turbine, requires sufficient wind resources to be effective and to produce energy at a reasonable cost.
The power in the wind is a cubic relationship to wind speed, i.e. if the wind speed doubles there is eight times more power. Energy is the sum of power over time.
( Power = 0.5 x p x Cp x Swept Area x windspeed3 )
Laws of physics show that to produce high levels of energy from a low wind speed is impossible. Low wind speeds are common in towns and urban areas due to roughness, however there are many locations on top of tall buildings, next to large bodies of water, or within urban areas that do have high winds and are suitable for Venger turbines.