Wind Power

Wind Power and Wind Generators

Welcome to hoosacwind.com! Our Web site is dedicated to de-mystifying wind power. Whether you’re looking for information on zoning restrictions for a residential wind turbine, or you just want to know what makes these bad boys tick, you’ve come to the right place. We are constantly updating in response to your suggestions, so if you see anything that you think should be included in our site, or have questions, please email us. Our FAQs are built out of questions from people just like you.

Wind power has been harnessed by mankind for generations. The first people to utilize the wind’s power to do work were sailors. They understood that if you opened a sheet to the breeze, the sheet would pull on your arms. They utilized the difference between wind direction and velocity, and the water’s direction and velocity to propel their craft.

Centuries would pass by before we found another reliable use for wind power, windmills! These giant buildings could harness the wind’s power to roll heavy grindstones. The cows in Belgium are grateful to this day for the break they caught when the Dutch tried this new technology out.

Yet more centuries would pass before wind power made the transition from mechanical mover to electrical impetus. The concept for electrical generators was invented in the early part of the 19th century. The concept itself was remarkably simple. If you rotated magnets around a conductor, it created a current. The concept of current is distinct from creating electricity. The electrons were there prior to the magnets’ arrival. The magnets simply set the electrons in motion along the conductor. The strength of the current created depended on the conductive abilities of the material used, as well as the strength of the magnet.

Since that invention, nearly every attempt at electric generation has included a coiled conductor, and electromagnets. It’s surprising then, that it took as long as it did to make the jump to using the wind to rotate the magnet. It was not until after the invention of the propeller driven aircraft that mankind put the pieces together and realized that an aerodynamically created propeller could be used as the impetus for power as well as the impetus for forward velocity, if it were merely kept in place.

The rest, as they say, is history. Once we discovered that we could spin a magnet with a propeller, we simply put the propellers up on sticks to get them into the wind. The higher the wind, the more current the wind generators could produce. There is a bright future in wind power. For instance, the two largest areas of sustainable wind power remain largely untapped.

Just a few miles off the shore of any body of water large enough there are constant winds. These winds are caused by two factors. The first is that land and water absorb sunlight differently. The second is that out on the water, there are no impediments to the wind. This means that slight breezes encounter nothing to stop or slow them down, the way they do on land. The breezes build a head of steam and are soon strong, prevailing winds that nearly never cease. The primary restriction right now to reliable off shore wind power is the cost of installation. The platforms for generating the power must be anchored to the sea bed, which is a costly process.

More impressive than that however, is the wind that can be found in the atmosphere even a single mile above the surface of the earth. These winds blow at over 100 miles per hour, and are always blowing! As opposed to the sea wind power, upper atmosphere wind has technological hurdles that must be overcome before we can even dream of tapping it. We’d need a way to use the wind to create an electrical current, which means that something would have to be stationary at that height. With the amount of friction that would occur with that kind of airflow, that’s no mean feat.

However there are still far more practical, down to earth methods of harnessing wind power. A wind turbine can comfortably fit in your back yard- without taking over the place. They can form a much needed buffer between you and rising energy costs, as well as reducing your carbon footprint.

Wind Power




	Wind Power and Wind Generators Welcome to hoosacwind.com! Our Web site is dedicated to de-mystifying wind power. Whether you’re looking for information on zoning restrictions for a residential wind turbine, or you just want to know what makes these bad boys tick, you’ve come to the right place. We are constantly updating in response to your suggestions, so if you see anything that you think should be included in our site, or have questions, please email us. Our FAQs are built out of questions from people just like you. Wind power has been harnessed by mankind for generations. The first people to utilize the wind’s power to do work were sailors. They understood that if you opened a sheet to the breeze, the sheet would pull on your arms. They utilized the difference between wind direction and velocity, and the water’s direction and velocity to propel their craft. Centuries would pass by before we found another reliable use for wind power, windmills! These giant buildings could harness the wind’s power to roll heavy grindstones. The cows in Belgium are grateful to this day for the break they caught when the Dutch tried this new technology out. Yet more centuries would pass before wind power made the transition from mechanical mover to electrical impetus. The concept for electrical generators was invented in the early part of the 19th century. The concept itself was remarkably simple. If you rotated magnets around a conductor, it created a current. The concept of current is distinct from creating electricity. The electrons were there prior to the magnets’ arrival. The magnets simply set the electrons in motion along the conductor. The strength of the current created depended on the conductive abilities of the material used, as well as the strength of the magnet. Since that invention, nearly every attempt at electric generation has included a coiled conductor, and electromagnets. It’s surprising then, that it took as long as it did to make the jump to using the wind to rotate the magnet. It was not until after the invention of the propeller driven aircraft that mankind put the pieces together and realized that an aerodynamically created propeller could be used as the impetus for power as well as the impetus for forward velocity, if it were merely kept in place. The rest, as they say, is history. Once we discovered that we could spin a magnet with a propeller, we simply put the propellers up on sticks to get them into the wind. The higher the wind, the more current the wind generators could produce. There is a bright future in wind power. For instance, the two largest areas of sustainable wind power remain largely untapped. Just a few miles off the shore of any body of water large enough there are constant winds. These winds are caused by two factors. The first is that land and water absorb sunlight differently. The second is that out on the water, there are no impediments to the wind. This means that slight breezes encounter nothing to stop or slow them down, the way they do on land. The breezes build a head of steam and are soon strong, prevailing winds that nearly never cease. The primary restriction right now to reliable off shore wind power is the cost of installation. The platforms for generating the power must be anchored to the sea bed, which is a costly process. More impressive than that however, is the wind that can be found in the atmosphere even a single mile above the surface of the earth. These winds blow at over 100 miles per hour, and are always blowing! As opposed to the sea wind power, upper atmosphere wind has technological hurdles that must be overcome before we can even dream of tapping it. We’d need a way to use the wind to create an electrical current, which means that something would have to be stationary at that height. With the amount of friction that would occur with that kind of airflow, that’s no mean feat. However there are still far more practical, down to earth methods of harnessing wind power. A wind turbine can comfortably fit in your back yard- without taking over the place. They can form a much needed buffer between you and rising energy costs, as well as reducing your carbon footprint.
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