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Wind Power (June 20, 2003, One)

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Program Summary

If you’ve ever experienced a tornado, a hurricane, or even just strong March gusts, you know how powerful the wind can be. Windmills have been used for centuries to power grinding stones (the Dutch are particularly famous for their windmills). Now we are learning to take advantage of this free, natural force to generate clean, cheap, unlimited electricity that could one day run the entire country. Wind power has been an industry in some European countries for more than a decade. In fact, wind provides 30 percent of all the electrical power in Denmark. Sounds perfect! So why don’t we have wind farms everywhere?

As ideal as it seems, there are a few problems with developing wind farms. The windiest locations that are the best sites for the farms are not usually close to cities with power grids; it could cost billions of dollars to build the transmission systems needed to carry electricity from the wind farms to areas that need it most. Nor does every community relish the idea of a wind farm in its neighborhood. The most powerful turbines are as tall as a 20-story building and can be rather noisy, and there are concerns that they despoil a landscape’s natural beauty as well as disrupt bird migration and hunting patterns.

There’s still much research to be done, such as how different weather conditions could affect the turbines and how best to regulate the new industry. But no one can deny the tremendous potential of wind power to ease the world’s dependence on fossil fuels and clean up the environment.

Guests

John Dunlop, regional manager of the American Wind Energy Association, northern Great Plains region, in Minneapolis

Mike Sloan, president of Virtus Energy Research Associates in Austin, Texas

Patrick Spears, president of the Intertribal Council on Utility Policy, Rosebud Sioux Tribe; Lower Brule Sioux Tribe, in Rosebud, South Dakota

John Donelan, associate director of Save Our Sound in Hyannis, Massachusetts

Related Links and Resources

Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound

American Wind Energy Association
European Wind Energy Association
Franklin Institute: Investigating Wind Energy
National Recoverable Energy Laboratory: National Wind Technology Center
NativeEnergy Wind Farm

U.S. Department of Energy Wind Energy Program

Virtus Energy Research Associates

Wind Energy Resource Atlas of the United States

For Discussion:

• How is wind converted into electricity?
• What is a power grid?
• What are the advantages of wind-generated power? What are the disadvantages?
• Why are there objections to wind farms?
• How can our power needs be balanced with the preservation of wildlife and the environment?

Activities

Blow your mind. National Geographic.com visits the European world of wind (Ireland to Build World’s Largest Wind Farm), and Julia Rhodes, a wind farm manager in the United Kingdom, gives British teens a tour of the farm she oversees at Planet Science’sA Day in the Life).

Gales of great ideas. The Franklin Institute On-line has a way with wind at The Wind: Our Fierce Friend, a scientific and artistic exploration of wind. Investigating Wind Energy is a four-unit, activity-based lesson plan; other sections showcase students’ art, science, and literary projects regarding wind. Wind Energy, a chapter in the California Energy Commission’s The Energy Story, has a simple explanation and diagram of a wind turbine; Wind Speed Indicator and Building A Wind Gauge feature easy directions to build wind instruments using household materials.

Ride the wild wind. Wave Wattage, a lesson plan from Riverdeep.net, discusses the advantages of wind and wave energy; We’ve Got the Power (DiscoverySchool.com) is an interesting overview of power generation with discussion questions, research assignments, in-class experiments, and links to unusual on-line activities such as Control the Nuclear Power Plant.

Use the search box below to perform a Google search within any of the specifc sites or general domains mentioned in this Activities section.

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