How Much Electricity Can You Generate Using Wind Power?
You don’t need to be told how important it is to start moving away from using fossil fuels to produce electricity and start using alternative energy sources which do not produce pollution and are renewable. If all of us started to demand these technologies be used by our utility companies, then all of us - and our planet could start to breathe a little easier.
It’s imperative that our generation make the change and start to use renewable green energy sources and ingrain the importance of using these clean energy sources on the younger generation. One of these technologies with great potential is wind power. However, before we discuss how much energy you can produce with a wind turbine, let’s examine how wind power works.
Many fear that wind power cannot produce enough energy without a steady strong wind. This is a misunderstanding of how wind power operates. Even the slightest breeze can produce electrical power. Wind power works by taking the kinetic energy of the wind moving the turbines of a wind generator to produce electrical power which can be used to power homes and businesses.
A wind generator will work best when installed on the roof of the building, as this allows it to catch more wind energy. However, it may be a good idea to have a backup supply of electrical power, so you may not want to call your local utility to disconnect just yet.
At those times when you’re using more electricity than is being produced by your wind generator, this will act as a failsafe to ensure that you have no power outages. When winds are over 7mph, however, you’ll usually produce more power than you’ll be able to use and you can then sell this surplus to your local electricity supplier.
This of course helps to lead people to the understanding that wind power can truly generate enough energy for you to make use of in your home. The power company will always be there to serve as a backup and you would probably have enough left over to sell back to the electric company.
Your wind generators are an investment in your energy independence which will pay for themselves and then some. Being able to sell your unneeded electrical power to your utility company is just one more way that this investment pays off. How much electricity can you produce with your wind generator? It all depends on the size of your generator and how windy of a region you happen to live in.
If the average wind speed in your area is 12 mph, then you can generate about 10,000 KWH annually with a 10KW generator; plenty of energy to meet the needs of the average household. If you have a 5 MW generator, you’ll generate more than 15 million KWH per year, which is enough energy to supply 14,000 homes with the electricity they need!