Currently, residential solar photovoltaic (PV) systems, as well as batteries and energy storage on a residential scale, are not affordable for the average person. Batteries and solar PV will become more affordable (as shown above) over time with ever-improving technology and decreases cost as the market for energy storage and residential solar PV installation matures becoming…
Category: Wind
On November 10th, 2014, the city of Pawleys Island passed an ordinance that would formally oppose the “placement of any wind turbines in any location where the turbines, or any part of the turbines, are visible, day or night, from thirty feet above mean high water at any point within the town of Pawleys Island.” This…
As the world modernizes and realizes the urgency for cleaner energy sources, countries are writing policies to introduce more renewables onto their grids. Germany is a leader in this movement and has developed a policy that expedites this process. Energiewende is Germany’s energy policy enacted in 2011 to introduce a significant increase in the use of…
Wind energy is a renewable energy source which means there is an inexhaustible amount of energy that can be cultivated. With zero greenhouse gas emissions, wind energy has very low impacts to the environment and can be used virtually anywhere the wind blows. According to the American Wind Energy Association, the wind industry has generated…
Europe’s wind-energy industry plays a large and positive role in Europe’s economy. Even in economic recession, the wind power sector employed around 238,000 in 2010. Also in 2010, the wind energy sector contributed almost 0.3 percent of Europe’s total GDP. There are 15 wind farms off the coasts of Europe consisting of 754 wind turbines all built…
The rotation of the blades cause the internal generator system to spin producing wind energy. This motion converts the rotational energy into electrical energy and moves down the shaft to a transformer where the energy is fully converted to electricity. Lastly, the electricity produced is distributed through a power grid where it is consumed by…
Forms of wind energy, such as windmills, have been used for hundreds of years to pump water, grind grains, and perform other farm-related tasks. It was only in the early 1980’s that people began to convert wind into electricity. The first wind farm was built in 1981 in Crotched Mountain, New Hampshire. Directly following, wind farms…