Small Wind Turbines: A Quick Overview
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Wind turbines are often the first impression people have of renewable energy, and for good reason. They’re beautiful creatures that can be found dotting our landscape in all shapes and sizes - from huge industrial wind farms with hundreds or thousands on site - to small home generation systems, powered by an individual turbine sitting right outside your house!
The purpose behind each type varies depending upon how much power you need to sustain home life (or even just charge electric car batteries) but no matter what size turbines, there's always one thing they share: the ability to provide clean sustainable electricity 24/7 without using any fossil fuels whatsoever!
How do small wind turbines work?
Small wind turbines use the same process to generate electricity as larger turbines. Wind energy is a renewable source of power that makes use of the movement from flowing winds, so when the wind blows past a turbine it in turn turns its blades and generates kinetic energy.
This kinetic energy can then be used for other purposes like turning shafts located inside a turbine.
The moment this shaft begins to turn and rotate then a thing called rotational energy is formed. This by-product of wind velocity is that which is converted to electricity inside the turbine.
Electricity generated in this fashion is then stored in storage facilities near the wind farm (or elsewhere) for later use in industries or homes.
So basically the process of making electricity from wind is the same as for both small and large turbines.
How much energy do they produce?
The electricity produced by small wind turbines is far less than that produced by large ones. The difference in capacity is what determines what the power is going to be used for.
When it comes to small power generating turbines the purpose for which they are sought is small scale.
Based on this it is opportune to say that such power is used for small industries. Such small industries are ones with a small capacity, for instance small scale tailor factories or paper processing plants.
Because these small businesses tend to not have high electricity needs it is viable for them to use this form of energy.
However it's for powering your home these small wind tubines come in very handy. Power for home use every month is pretty much small so home wind power is a good way of cutting down on your power bill.
By just installing three or four turbines you will be able to produce your own homemade power without resorting to the main power grid.
Small scale wind turbines
As you may have noticed a lot of small scale farms make use of turbines (or are starting to, at least). These small wind turbines can be used on a farm to pump electricity, and other small 'power' needs.
This can be a very economical and eco-friendly thing to do considering that electricity generators used for pumping water can consume a lot of power.
Of course, to run small wind turbines like this, you'll need a good amount of wind, or live in a windy area. The alternative is installing solar panels but to do this you'll need a good amount of sun too.
As we advance in technology thinking and adaptation, the more efficient, powerful and effective small wind turbines (and even those huge ones that dot the landscape) will become!
I’m Martin Hurley - the friendliest and most helpful person in the wind generator field! (That’s me on an ‘early’ electric bike, way back in 2010). I write posts and reviews about wind power, green energy, wind turbine kits, wind energy tools, tech and more. Depending where you live, one day I’m sure there’ll be wind generators built into our homes, our vehicles and on every street corner - and they’ll be fantastically efficient!