Explain which form of energy is captured by wind turbines.

Describe how wind turbines produce electricity by referring to energy transfers and transformations

Classify two forms of energy at a wind power station and give an example of each one.

i) State the features of the following:(a) Nuclear Energy (b) Wind Energy

In a wind the combination of lift and drag causes the rotor to spin like a propeller, and the turning shaft spins a generator to make electricity.   True  False

Not all of the wind energy is converted into mechanical energy within the wind turbine. There area number of reasons for this. Firstly, a German Physicist named Albert Betz showed that a windturbine could not convert any more than 59.3% of the wind energy into mechanical energy in theturbine, known as the Betz Limit. In practice the yield of mechanical energy from wind energy iscloser to about 50% during normal operation. The fraction of wind energy converted to mechanicalenergy is referred to as Cp, with Cp being approximated by:Cp(vhub) =kXi=1ai λi (3)where λ = r ω/vhub is the ratio of tangential blade tip velocity to the windspeed and k is an arbitraryinteger. ω has the units of rad/sec and r has the units of m. A typical curve of Cp vs. λ is shownin Figure 2.2