About Windmill

Facts

Wind energy is considered as one of the greatest renewable power sources on Earth. On different parts of land wind is produced due to variations in temperature. As light from the sun heats up surfaces, different temperatures of air are produced. Temperature over water surface like lake or ocean will always be cooler than the temperature over rocky ground. Following are some facts about Windmills-

Wind energy is a renewable energy source and it will exist as long as sunlight exists.

Applications

Windmills are generally used to harness power of wind to perform mechanical work as well as generation of electricity. Applications of windmills are as follows –

Large Scale Electric Power Generation- Huge numbers of windmills are installed on a single site called as wind farms to produce large scale electric power from wind.Small Scale Electric Power Generation- Single windmill can be installed in remote locations to produce electricity, where connection to the general electric network is not available

Types

Two types of windmills are used in current scenario; one is horizontal-axis windmill and second is vertical-axis windmill and most of them are horizontal type. One windmill generally produces 1.5 to 4.0 million kilowatt hours of electricity in a year which is enough for 400-500 homes.

Horizontal-axis windmills- These machines have blade like aircraft propellers. Horizontal-axis windmill stands about as tall as twenty story building and has three sails that span 200 feet across, which stand tall and wide to capture more wind