Which turbine is
suitable for my needs?
A medium sized average home requires between 4–6
MWh of energy
per annum. A school, office, community centre or farm will almost
certainly use a lot more.An assessment of the power requirements of your
particular application and a wind speed assessment of your site, will need
to be made in order to determine which turbine will meet all your needs,
however the question may not be as important as you might imagine ...
The wind turbine, and your property, will
be connected to
the national grid, so whenever you need more power than the wind turbine
can produce, it will simply come from your electricity supplier as it does
now. When your turbine produces more power than you need, it is exported
to the grid, and you get paid for the surplus.
How do wind turbines
generate electricity?
Wind turbines have a rotor (a hub with three
blades), a
power shaft and a generator to convert wind energy into
electrical energy. Wind passes over the rotor and makes it spin. This
spinning motion is used by the generator to produce electricity.
The amount of energy produced depends on wind speed
and the diameter of the rotor. Because wind speed increases
with height, the wind turbines are mounted on towers. A good location
for wind turbines should have average annual wind speeds of at least
12 miles per hour. Small changes in average wind speed are important. Even
a one-mile-per-hour increase in wind speed makes a
significant difference in the power available to generate electricity.
Do the turbines affect TV or radio reception?
Several thousand towers have been erected in
Europe and California. The majority of these turbines have not
caused
any signal interference. MGE sited the wind turbines to
minimize signal interference. MGE fixed any TV signal problems nearby
neighbors had.
Are birds
affected by wind turbines?
Care is taken to locate wind turbines away
from sensitive
wildlife areas such as wetlands and migratory paths. MGE’s wind site
was reviewed by independent agencies for environmental impacts
including bird mortality. Ongoing studies at our site have shown that
bird mortality has not been a problem.
What happens
when the wind doesn’t blow?
The turbines are dependent on the wind to
produce
electricity. On a calm day, the turbines won’t be able to produce
power. But electricity is still available; other power plants will
adjust their output to make up the difference.
What happens if lightning strikes a wind turbine?
Each wind turbine is protected from lightning
by a
grounding system. In the event of a strike, the system guides
the electrical energy safely to ground. This system is similar to the
lightning
Can wind turbines blend
into the landscape?
The turbines are located in open terrain to
have access to
the wind. Better equipment designs and careful planning dramatically
improve the appearance of wind farms
