Center for Learning in Action



Energy

Lesson #5: Renewable Energy Sources- Wind

Time Frame: 60 minutes

Please write the vocabulary words on the board before each lesson

Vocabulary

Turbine- A machine for producing continuous power in which a wheel or rotor is made to revolve by a fast-moving flow of water, steam, gas, air, or other fluid

Fuel- A material such as coal, gas, or oil that is burned to produce heat or power

Pollution- The presence in or introduction into the environment of a substance or thing that has harmful or has poisonous effects

Objectives:

Students will be able to:

1) Understand the advantages and disadvantages of wind energy

2) Create an experiment showing how turbines make wind usable

Introduction:

Use article to introduce renewable energy to class.

Concepts:

Talk about wind energy to the class. Explain to students that wind is a clean renewable source of energy that is good for the environment. Wind turbines harness energy without burning fuel, so it makes a pollution-free alternative to oil. Turbines are used today mostly to generate electricity. Finding alternative energy sources like wind energy in the United States became especially important in the 1970s, when the world experienced its first oil shortage.

Briefly discuss some advantages and disadvantages of wind energy

Advantages of Wind Energy

1- Green Energy

Wind energy is a green energy source. Harnessing wind energy does not pollute the environment as fossil fuels, coal and nuclear energy does. Other than construction and installation, generating electricity with wind energy does not involve any emissions of climate gases whatsoever. However, there are some environmental impacts of wind energy that we will discuss in the disadvantages section.

2- Renewable

Wind energy is a renewable source of energy. Wind is naturally occurring and there is no way we can empty the resources (it naturally comes back). Wind energy can traced to the nuclear fusion processes that takes place on the Sun. In other words, as long as the Sun keeps shining, we can harness wind energy on Earth (according to scientists, another 6-7 billion years!).

This is not the case for fossil fuels, which we heavily rely on today (e.g. oil and gas).

3- Availability

Although some places are better suited, harnessing wind energy can be done almost everywhere. However, whether or not a resource is financially viable, comes down to the following question: “Can we generate cost-competitive electricity with current technology in this particular area?”

4- Decreasing Prices

Prices have decreased significantly (as much as 60% since the 1980’s according to some sources). Technological advancements and higher demand is expected to continue to push the prices down even further.

5- Residential Opportunities

People can generate their own electricity with wind power in much the same manner as people do with solar panels (photovoltaics). Some companies specialize in residential installations and there are also several DIY wind power kits on the market. It is possible to save money in the long run with residential wind turbines.

Disadvantages of Geothermal Energy

1- Unpredictable

Wind is unpredictable and the availability of wind energy is fluctuating. Wind energy is therefore not suitable as a base load of energy source (breakthroughs in energy storage technologies might change this in the future). This is why wind turbines have to be used together with other renewables or even non-renewables to meet the power demand.

2-Costs

The cost-competitiveness of wind power is highly debatable. In most cases, projects rely heavily on incentives to give wind power a fair chance to compete against already well established the power sources such as fossil fuels and coal.

3-Noise

Living close to wind turbines is a potential problem when it comes to noise. New designs show significant improvements compared to older ones.

4-Looks

Some complain about how wind turbines are ugly. A solution to this problem is to position wind farms at places where the population density is low. It can also be solved with offshore wind farms. On the other hand, a lot of people don’t have any problems with how wind turbines blend in with the environment.

Source:

Focus Activity 1:

Try this experiment in between two chairs or in between two trees if it is a nice day.

[pic]

[pic]

Focus Activity 2: Bike

[pic][pic]

The bike works just like a wind turbine except, instead of the wind propelling the wheels to turn, a person is causing the motion. When the bike is stationary, the lights on the top are off. When someone starts pedaling, the generator on the bottom captures the kinetic energy from the blades and generates power that lights the bulbs on the top. The faster you ride, the more bulbs can be lit.

In the case of a wind-electric turbine, the turbine blades are designed to capture the kinetic energy in wind. When the turbine blades capture wind energy and start moving, they spin a shaft that leads from the hub of the rotor to a generator. The generator turns that rotational energy into electricity.

Have each student get on the bike and see how many bulbs they can light. If a bulb blows or breaks off, don’t worry its an easy fix. Continue with the remaining bulbs.

Focus Activity 3:[pic]

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