Wind Turbines

Wind turbines are a rotating machine that will spin and convert kinetic energy from the rotation in the wind into mechanical energy or electricity to use to power your house or anything else. There are various type of wind turbines these days. If they power machines directly such as a well pump then they are considered wind mills. If the energy produced is instead converted to electricity then the source is considered a wind turbine or wind generator. Wind Turbines have subcategories like Vertical Axis Wind Turbines or Horizontal Wind Turbines. We are a supplier for a Vertical Wind Turbines.

History of Wind Turbines

[1] Wind machines were used in Persia as early as 200 B.C. This type of machine was introduced into the Roman Empire by 250 A.D. However, the first practical windmills were built in Sistan, Iran, from the 7th century. These were vertical axle windmills, which had long vertical driveshafts with rectangle shaped blades. Made of six to twelve sails covered in reed matting or cloth material, these windmills were used to grind corn and draw up water, and were used in the gristmilling and sugarcane industries.

By the 14th century, Dutch windmills were in use to drain areas of the Rhine River delta. In Denmark by 1900 there were about 2,500 windmills for mechanical loads such as pumps and mills, producing an estimated combined peak power of about 30 MW. The first known electricity generating windmill operated was a battery charging machine installed in 1887 by James Blyth in Scotland, UK[citation needed]. The first windmill for electricity production in the United States was built in Cleveland, Ohio by Charles F Brush in 1888, and in 1908 there were 72 wind-driven electric generators from 5 kW to 25 kW. The largest machines were on 24 m (79 ft) towers with four-bladed 23 m (75 ft) diameter rotors. Around the time of World War I, American windmill makers were producing 100,000 farm windmills each year, most for water-pumping. By the 1930s windmills for electricity were common on farms, mostly in the United States where distribution systems had not yet been installed. In this period, high-tensile steel was cheap, and windmills were placed atop prefabricated open steel lattice towers.

A forerunner of modern horizontal-axis wind generators was in service at Yalta, USSR in 1931. This was a 100 kW generator on a 30 m (100 ft) tower, connected to the local 6.3 kV distribution system. It was reported to have an annual capacity factor of 32 per cent, not much different from current wind machines.

The first utility grid-connected wind turbine operated in the UK was built by the John Brown Company in 1954 in the Orkney Islands. It had an 18 meter diameter, three-bladed rotor and a rated output of 100 kW. [1]

Vertical Axis Wind Turbines

Vertical-axis wind turbines are what we produce here at Diamond wind solutions. This type of turbine has a main rotor shaft vertically. These types of Wind Turbines are the turbine that does not need to be pointed into the wind to be effective.This is a big key in areas where your wind may vary and not always stay constant.

With a vertical axis wind Turbines are easier to maintain because the generator does not need to be at the top of the tower it can be placed at the ground. Wind Turbines are the future of Wind power because they can be asthetically pleasing and less noise and less maintenance than a traditonal wind mill. .

Sources for History of Wind Turbines

[1] wikipedia- Free online Dictionary http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_turbines