CHAPTER ONE WHAT IS WIND POWER It is a windy night You are 300 feet 91 m above small window you can see bright stars above the ground in a tall thin tower Looking out a Around you enormous blades slice through the air A whooshing noise fills the tower From outside the wind turbine looks like a giant fan It is generating electricity for the town below As long as the wind is blowing turbines can generate electricity day or night 5
Wind Farms A wind farm is a large group of wind turbines The turbines work together to produce power for communities and businesses The rows of wind turbines are called arrays The first wind farm was built in 1980 in New Hampshire It had 20 wind turbines Today wind farms are much larger The biggest wind farm in the world is the Alta Wind Energy Center in California It features more than 480 turbines Wind turbines sit on tall towers They have two or three blades at the top The wind causes these blades to spin They turn the energy of the wind into electricity This is wind power What Is Wind Power Wind energy is in part a form of a solar energy The sun is always heating Earth’s ground and air Wind exists because of the temperature changes this creates Some areas heat up Others cool down Warm air is less dense than cold air so it rises This movement helps create wind 6
Workers may have to dangle high in the air when repairing large wind turbine blades
