How to Make Electricity
As you know, lots of things like your computer, television, X-box, refrigerator, and more run on electricity. Most electricity comes from burning fuels, like natural gas, coal, or petroleum. These aren’t renewable resources because once the fuel is burned, it’s used up.
Wind, on the other hand, is a renewable resource. It is a form of energy and it’s all around us. It is renewable because wind will always be there. Yes, the wind blows a lot sometimes and only a little at other times, but if it’s not windy one day, we know it will be windy again soon. Here is a great little video you may like. Click here.
How We Make Electricity From Wind
We can make electricity for our homes from renewable wind energy. To do this, we need something called a generator. This is something like a motor in reverse. For a motor to turn, we add electricity. A generator is the opposite. When it spins, it makes electricity.
Producing Electricity for Homes
To make electricity for our homes, we build wind turbines out of generators as big as a school bus and equally big windmill blades. Then we place them up high in windy places so they are hit by the strong winds. Just like when wind hits a pinwheel, wind turbines spin when enough wind hits them. And that makes electricity.
Some days there’s no wind and the wind turbines don’t turn. Sometimes there’s too much wind and the wind turbines shut down so they don’t turn too fast. Whenever wind turbines aren’t spinning, they’re not making electricity. When the wind is just right, which happens a lot where the Palm Springs Windmill Tours are located, we can make a lot of electricity for our homes.
This is just an introduction to wind power generation. Be sure to take the tour at Palm Springs Windmill Tours for an opportunity to get up close to these amazing machines.