Maxim Russo: Catching wind

Maxim Russo Sy/Flickr windshields

The person who felt the wind of change
It is necessary to build a shield from the wind, but a windmill .

Mao Zedong

In Herbert Wells’s novel “When the Sleeping wakes up,” the hero wakes up in 2100, in the world, the basis of the energy of which was the use of the wind: “A giant human hive, which works tired of the wind and a symbol, which is the emblem of which is a chickenpox.”

The date outlined by Wells is still far away, but, nevertheless, the steps in the direction indicated by him are already taken. The world wind energy, previously former the marginal sector in the production of energy, began to develop with the 1973 oil crisis and since then has not reduced the pace. One of the European leaders - Denmark - since 2011 receives more than a quarter of electricity from wind electrical installations, and in 2030 plans to bring this indicator to 50%. Throughout the world in 2010, the production of electricity through the wind reached more than 2.5% of the total electricity consumption and grows by more than 25% per year. It is planned that in the countries of the European community, the share of wind energy by 2020 will reach 13%. Together with the countries of Europe, they are actively striving to master the energy of the USA, Canada, China and India as much as possible. In total, wind energy exists in 83 countries.

According to the law, the Betza coefficient of the useful engine of the wind engine is 59.3 % of the kinetic energy of the wind.

The market for wind electrical installations (VAU) is growing by more than 20 % per year. Leading manufacturers of VAU: GE Energy (USA), Vestas (Denmark), Siemens Wind Power (Germany - Denmark), Enercon (Germany), Suzlon Group (India), Goldwind (China), China Guodian Corporation (China), Sinovel (China), Ming Yang (China). Together, these companies control more than 75% of the market. They mainly manufacture unit capacity from 600 to 1000 kW or more. However, many small firms in Germany, Belgium, Holland and Denmark produce VEU of small and medium power.

The theoretical foundation of wind energy was created at the beginning of the 20th century. Then almost three scientists: the Englishman Frederick Lanchester , the German Albert Betz and the Russian Nikolai Zhukovsky - calculated the maximum theoretical coefficient of the beneficial engine, which was equal to 59.3 % of the kinetic energy of the wind. This result was the first to publish Lanchester, but for historical reasons this law received the name of Bets. Modern windmills do not reach the limit due to the law of Bets, but have already overcome a mark of 40% of the efficiency.

The wind energy installations use a renewable energy source, do not emit greenhouse gases and do not leave radioactive waste behind.

The World Meteorological Organization evaluates the potential resources of wind energy at 170 trillion kilowatt hours a year. The wind energy installations use a renewable energy source, do not emit greenhouse gases and do not leave radioactive waste behind.

However, wanting to use the energy of the wind, humanity should overcome a number of problems specific for this source. Winds are a rather constant phenomenon if they evaluate them on a large temporary scale, and longer. But on more brief segments of time you can’t rely on the wind. The wind can change the direction, sometimes a complete calm reigns for several days, but another time the wind will become so strong that it will break the generator blades. Since the power of the wind flow is proportional to the cube of its speed, even relatively small changes in the wind speed lead to significant fluctuations in the installation power. The complications of the generator make rain and snow. Wind energy installations can create excessive noise and interference in the spread of radio waves.

These problems can be solved by improving energy management methods in order to redistribute energy from those wind stations where it is currently produced with excess, to those places where the wind has now subsided. A variety of batteries are used at windbreaking power plants. In addition to electric ones, it can be air batteries, where the wind pumps air into the cylinders, and then, when the calm occurs, this air comes out of the cylinders and rotates the generator blades. There are also water batteries in which water is pumped into a high tank by force of wind, which will then be able to rotate the turbine. There are even chemical batteries, in them the wind energy decomposes water into hydrogen and oxygen by electrolysis, which can then be used in a gas turbine. All these methods are aimed at ensuring the uniform operation of the power plant, independent of the vagaries of the wind.

Nowadays, the wind energy operates on a variety of scale: from small windmills, which provide electricity with an remote farm somewhere in the Australian steppes, to large shelf power plants located in the ocean several tens of kilometers from the coast, the power of which reaches hundreds of Megavatts.

Interestingly, at one time the USSR was a world leader in the field of wind energy. In 1931, a wind -energy installation with a capacity of 100 kW was created in Balaklava, which was a world record at that time. In the 1950s in the USSR, up to nine thousand wind energy installations were produced per year, the capacity of such installations could reach 30 kW. During the virgin lands in Kazakhstan, the world's first multi -aggregate wind farming in the world, where windmills were combined with diesel. Their total capacity reached 400 kW. Unfortunately, soon the windbreaking of the TPP, hydroelectric power station and nuclear power plants, and the production of generators was rolled up. Currently, the installed power of wind farms in Russia is about 13 MW. The largest wind farms in Russia is Zelenogradskaya (5.1 MW), Anadirskaya (2.5 MW) and the Tympuldi power station in Bashkiria (2.2 MW). Especially promising for chickenpox in our country, however, do not seem large stations, but units that supply energy areas remote from centralized energy supply sources, as well as small energy consumers.

In Russia, residents of the Skolkovo Foundation are conducted in Russia: the Irkutsk company Aerogrin and St. Petersburg Optiflame Solushens .

As part of the cluster of energy -efficient technologies of the Skolkovo Foundation, the Irkutsk company Aerogrin is conducted in the field of wind energy. The wind turbine developed by her does not depend on the direction of the wind, it can work in the rain and snow and withstand hurricane winds at a speed of up to 30 meters per second. Moreover, the turbine body is equipped with solar panels, which allow you to produce energy even in calm weather. According to the developer, the cost of 1 kWh of electricity obtained at this installation is three rubles, while on three-blank windmills, often used in chickenpox, it reaches six rubles.

Another company "Optiflame Solushens" He works in St. Petersburg. She also develops turbines, which are distinguished by reduced noise in work and safety for people and birds, so they can be installed even on the roofs of city houses. In 2012, Optiflame Solushens became the first Russian company to receive a resident of the University Research Center (University City Science Center) in Philadelphia.

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