How a wind turbine works?［１］
Generally a wind turbine is composed of four major units, which are blades, a hub, a nacelle and a tower. Recently the size of wind turbines is getting larger and larger. You can see huge turbines as big as 80m in height with generator capacity of 2 to 3MW.
Inside the nacelle, there are a gearbox, a generator, a blade pitch control unit, a yaw control unit, etc. On the top of the nacelle an anemoscope and an anemometer are also installed as part of controlling unit.
How a wind turbine works?［２］
Wind turbines generally work as follows:
The rotor, normally composed of 3 blades, rotates by the wind power, and creates lif which makes the hub rotate. The power of rotation will be transmitted to the main shaft and then, through the gearbox, it turns the generator to generate electricity.There are some variations in types like the one without gearbox, and different types of generators. The electricity generated by the wind turbines is boosted by transformers and transmitted for manufacturing factories or home use.
Most of wind power plants are managed under unmanned operation. They are administrated with highly automated computerized systems to realize efficient and safe operation. Some of the key operational customs are to control nacelle direction based on the wind directions, to change the blade pitch angle so that they might get less wind resistance and minimize the risk of breaking blades especially in theextremely strong or weak wind conditions, or sometimes to halt rotation completely by using mechanical brakes. These programmes enable to automatically control the equipments.
Furthermore the wind turbines are monitored from the distance through internet systems or telephone line networks nowadays, sensoring the concurrent wind conditions on site, cotroling the start-ups or suspension of rotors at all times. By doing so the emergency countermeasures are securely realized.
The features of wind power generation
There are five major features of wind power generation as mentioned below.
●No CO2 emission
●No worry about depletion or resources
●Energy resources of worldwide existence and safety
●Simple construction and easy operation
●Less negative impact on natural environment
The wind energy is proportional to the cube of the wind velocity and to the square of the rotor diameter. By hiring the latest technology for upsizing the wind turbines, constructing large-sized wind turbines has turned to be realistic. Also "Offshore wind power plants" are introduced in the coastal area or offshore in the sea.