It's amazing that we can get electrical power just from the wind, but that's exactly what happens with a wind farm. It's a collection of wind turbines in a particular location with abundant wind. And as with many things, bigger is better. The Hornsea Wind Farm, for example, is being built 75 miles off the coast of Yorkshire, England, and upon completion it is expected to be the biggest offshore wind farm in the world. These are some big wind turbines: The video lists the turbine diameter as 154 meters (more than 500 feet).
But here's the part I'm interested in. They claim that just one turn of these giant wind turbines can generate enough energy to power a house for a whole day. You know what comes next right? An estimation. Let's see if the numbers add up for this claim.
I suppose we should start with the fundamental physics principles that make this wind turbine create electricity. Like most other methods of generating electricity, it involves turning a coil of wire in a magnetic field. When a changing magnetic field passes through a coil it produces an electric current. But then how do you get that coil to turn? For a wind turbine, the air moving into the large blades pushes them in a rotating motion.
Read more at Wired
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