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Wind Turbine Efficiency
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Wind Turbine Efficiency.
Wind turbine efficiency is steadily increasing. The use of gearing systems and improved blade design has already had an impact on the amount of electricity can be generated from wind power. As technology is improved upon and applied to these turbines, there is little doubt that their efficiency will only increase, but can only do so up to a certain point.
In order to understand wind turbine efficiency it is important to understand some basic principles. First, the amount of energy going into the turbine (kinetic energy produced by the wind on the front side of the blades) must equal that coming out the other side (combination of the energy collected by the turbine and the remaining wind that passes by). If you stand on the back side of a wind turbine you will notice that there is still a substantial amount of wind blowing by you, meaning that not all of it is being converted into electricity.
The second principle in understanding wind turbine efficiency is Betz’s Law, which states that the maximum efficiency possible when using wind power is only 59%. If a turbine was 100% efficient there would be no wind at all on the backside, which means there would be no air flowing out the way of the incoming air, which means that the air flow would stop, as would the turbine. Simply stated, in order for a wind turbine to work, it must do so at considerably less than 100% efficiency.
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