Wind Power Plants

Wind power plants are also called wind farms. These are plants where wind energy is captured and converted to wind power. The wind power is further used to generate electricity.

A wind power plant has a number of wind machines installed over a large area. It is not easy to operate a wind power plant. A wind farm needs proper planning and careful selection of the location of the wind power plant. Another important consideration for a wind farm is how fast and how much wind blows.

It is known that the speed of wind increases with increase in the altitude and the speed of wind is more in open areas. Therefore, most wind power plants are located on top of hills or at open plains and shorelines.

There are various types of wind power plants. Remote wind power plants are small and cheap to operate and produce electricity. They can operate under harsh conditions and meet the wind power needs of rural areas. Hybrid wind power plants, use wind power to generate electricity in conjunction with another source of energy. Grid connected wind power plants are the most widely used and supplement other forms of energy.

Wind power plants have been developed because individual wind machines cannot generate a lot of electricity. The use of wind power in wind farms to generate electricity gives a high output of electricity that can be put to various uses.

Wind power, as an energy source, is not being used properly. Wind power generates only about 25% of the total electricity whereas it has the potential to generate more electricity.