OLogy Cards > wind power

wind power

For thousands of years, humans have relied on the power of wind to sail across oceans, pump water, and grind grain. In the 1880s, engineers figured out how to use windmills to generate electricity. Today, electricity-producing windmills, or wind turbines, are found in open, windy spots around the world.

Stats

Definition: the process of producing electricity or mechanical energy using the power of wind
Carbon Dioxide Emissions: none!
Cost: cheap (compared to other energy sources)
Location: open, windy areas including offshore
Current Use: Wind power provides 8.4% of the world's electricity, and it's growing every year.
Cool Fact: Excess electricity from wind farms in Denmark is used to pump water uphill in Norway and Sweden. It is then used to power hydroelectric plants.

Stumper

A group of wind turbines is called a:

wind factory

wind farm

wind forest

Correct!

One large wind farm in New Mexico generates enough clean electricity to power more than a million homes! That's as many homes as the largest coal-fired power plant in the US, which contributes more than 11 million tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.

Stumper

An ideal location for wind turbines is:

in a forest

in a town center

on an open plain

Correct!

Wind turbines need to be where wind is strong and consistent. Other possible locations include coastlines, mountaintops, valleys, and offshore.

Fact or Fiction

Wind is driven by solar power. So wind power is also renewable like solar power.

Fact

Fiction

Fact

The Sun heats the atmosphere unevenly. This, along with Earth’s rotation and varied surface, causes wind. As long as the Sun shines and Earth has an atmosphere, there will be wind!

Fact or Fiction

Cats kill more birds than wind farms do.

Fact

Fiction

Fact

Wind farms can be harmful to birds if they're built in the wrong areas. But far more birds are killed by cats, by flying into windows, and by being hit by cars. Still, people are working to place turbines away from bird habitats and migration paths.

Image credits: main image, courtesy of Glowimages/AGE Fotostock.

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