Wind power is the fastest advancing source of clean energy today. Want to understand the different parts of a wind turbine? LET'S EXPLORE ...
The main equipment needed to harness wind energy is a wind turbine – consisting of a tower, frame, turbine blades, and generator.
Other parts are required to deliver useable electricity, such as inverters, cabling, batteries, charge-controllers, and an electricity meter if you want to sell electricity back to the grid.
This article details the different parts of a wind turbine and how they work.
The fastest and most consistent winds are high above ground level, so turbines are raised on a tower in order to generate more electricity.
The main reason for this is that wind speeds are naturally faster and more consistent above ground level. Ground level winds also tend to be more turbulent.
Beyond naturally occurring physics, ground level wind speeds are interrupted and slowed by things like trees and buildings.
Most residential blade turbines use a tower around 10 metres tall. Larger commercial wind turbines stand up to 100 metres tall.
The tower is one of the most crucial parts of a wind turbine for increasing power production and cost efficiency. The U.S Department of Energy found that increasing the height of a 10 kW wind turbine from 18 meters to 30 meters resulted in a 25% increase in power production.
Turbines are designed with specific wind speed ranges in mind. These vary depending on the size and location of the turbine.
Speed controllers and cut-off switches are used to prevent damage in high winds.
The turbine itself consists of blades, frame, shaft, generator, and tail.
The frame holds the pieces together and strengthens the system. The wind turbine blades (normally two or three blades) are aerodynamically shaped to catch the wind, turning a shaft which is connected to a generator.
The generator transforms the mechanical energy into electricity through a process called electromagnetic induction.
A tail is used to keep the first-contact parts of a wind turbine, such as the turbine blades, at the optimal angle to the wind.
Because the electricity produced by a wind turbine (DC) is different to that used by household appliances and fittings (AC), a small inverter is used to convert the wind turbine's DC electricity into useable AC electricity.
Inverters are used to connect wind turbines to the mains power of a building. Household appliances and fittings use AC (alternating current) electricity but wind turbines produce DC (direct current) electricity.
The wind turbine inverter converts the DC electricity to AC.
Some small-scale wind energy users don’t use inverters – instead using the wind-electricity to charge batteries then run appliances off the batteries.
Wind turbine cabling transports electricity from the wind turbine to the building, battery bank, or electricity grid.
Cabling is a significant cost when installing wind turbines. Most people position turbines a long distance from buildings in order to reduce noise and aesthetic interruption, as well as getting the optimal wind position. Larger distances mean more wind turbine cabling and larger costs.
The intermittent nature of wind means sometimes more power will be produced than is needed, and at other times more power is needed than is produced.
For this reason most wind turbine installations use batteries to store excess electricity.
These deep cycle batteries are different than normal batteries in that they are suited to trickle charging, can often retain enough power to last for days, and can be recharged many times.
Using batteries is particularly useful for people in isolated rural areas where grid power is inaccessible or expensive.
Battery charge controllers ensure that the batteries don’t over charge. They act as a cut-off switch, or may be automated to cease charging the full battery and start charging another battery.
This prevents degradation of batteries and potential problems such as overheating or exploding batteries.
Instead of using batteries, many wind energy producers opt to stay connected to the grid.
When the wind is high, the building uses wind-generated electricity. When it's calm, the building uses grid electricity.
Excess wind-generated electricity can also be sold back to the electricity companies through the grid in many places.
Special meters are installed to monitor the electricity consumption and generation from a property. These either turn backwards when excess electricity is going into the grid or have separate consumption and production meters.
Meters are one of the electrical parts of a wind turbine that really make wind energy economically viable. Expensive capital costs can be mitigated by income from wind-generated electricity.
As well as the advantage of not being totally dependent on the winds, staying grid connected means battery costs can be avoided.
It depends on where you live. Like solar it can't be cetound on 24/7, so you would have to have a storage system of some sort, and would have to be in an area with very reliable wind currents. I think a system that is still tied to the grid is the most practical and most cost efficient. You don't need a storage system so you save money. Most grid tied systems allow you to sell back the excess electricity you create, so it is much more efficient. Since you can draw from the grid when you aren't producing or when your need exceeds production you won't have to worry about not having electricity.
nice work guys its really usefull
Real, Wind electricity can make you live at zero cost. I am desperate to have that at my place.
Good work!
Thanks!
I am trying my hands on a small wind system, just for lights to start with. I understand you dont necesarily need a gearbox and/or an invertor in small systems. So how could the batteries be charged and not cause overheating when wind speeds are high and battery discharge when there is not enough wind to turn de turbines.
I am sure there should be some sort of relay system in place any ideas we live in ghana
No, it could not be used for everything all of the time wihtuot a battery backup to store additional energy for when the wind is not blowing hard enough to create the electricity that is needed. The same goes with solar power. That is why neither source can be the only sources of energy even though the environmentalists ignore this fact.
What is ALL the parts for a Wind Turbine?
It depends on where you live. Like solar it can't be coneutd on 24/7, so you would have to have a storage system of some sort, and would have to be in an area with very reliable wind currents. I think a system that is still tied to the grid is the most practical and most cost efficient. You don't need a storage system so you save money. Most grid tied systems allow you to sell back the excess electricity you create, so it is much more efficient. Since you can draw from the grid when you aren't producing or when your need exceeds production you won't have to worry about not having electricity.