Wind power is the use of wind energy to generate useful work. Historically, wind power was used by sails, windmills and windpumps, but today it is mostly used to generate electricity. This article deals only with wind power for electricity generation. Today, wind power is generated almost completely with wind turbines, generally grouped into wind farms and connected to the electrical grid.
In 2022, wind supplied over 2000 TWh of electricity, which was over 7% of world electricity and about 2% of world energy. With about 100 GW added during 2021, mostly in China and the United States, global installed wind power capacity exceeded 800 GW. To help meet the Paris Agreement goals to limit climate change, analysts say it should expand much faster - by over 1% of electricity generation per year. (Full article...)
A panemone windmill is a type of vertical-axis wind turbine. It has a rotating axis positioned vertically, while the wind-catching blades move parallel to the wind. By contrast, the shaft of a horizontal-axis wind turbine (HAWT) points into the wind while its blades move at right-angles to the wind's thrust. That is, a panemone primarily uses drag whereas the blades of a HAWT use lift.
Historically the earliest known wind machine was made by the Persians and it was the panemone design, consisting of a wall, with slits, surrounding a vertical axle containing four to eight fabric sails. As the wind blew, the sails would turn the axle, which was in turn connected to grain grinders or some form of water transportation device (though little is known of the actual details of such methods). (Full article...)A windmill is a structure that converts wind power into rotational energy using vanes called sails or blades, by tradition specifically to mill grain (gristmills), but in some parts of the English-speaking world, the term has also been extended to encompass windpumps, wind turbines, and other applications. The term wind engine is also sometimes used to describe such devices. (Full article...)
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