Wind turns the propellor-like blades of a turbine around a rotor, which spins a generator, which creates electricity.

The turbine has three large fan blades at the top of a tall pole. Wind blows and make the turbine blades move. Inside the turbine, there are gears connected to a generator transforming the wind’s energy into electricity. Transformers increase the voltage and then feed the electricity to the power grid.

While we will never run out of wind, it can sometimes be unreliable or intermittent. If wind is too low on some days, the wind turbine won’t generate any electricity. In order to use wind turbines effectively, they need to be paired with some sort of energy storage technology.

Electricity from wind energy is one of the fastest growing methods of electricity generation in the world. The electricity that is generated on wind farms can be used locally or connected to an electric grid to power homes and business further away.

Wind energy is a clean and renewable source of energy and is one of the most cost-effective sources of electricity. Unlike coal, natural gas, or oil, wind energy does not result in greenhouse gas emissions and don’t require any fossil fuels to operate.

While wind turbines are quite expensive to install, once they are up and running, the operating costs are low because the wind is free, and turbines don’t require a lot of maintenance over time.

Wind turbines don’t really take up a lot of space, so the land they are built on can also be used to other things, such as farming. However, they can be noisy and cause visual pollution, and can harm species that fly into them since they turn at such high speeds. When wind turbines are built, sometimes natural habitats or ecosystems are destroyed.

Let’s explore three types of wind turbines: land based, offshore, and distributed wind.

Land based wind turbines range in size and are often more cost effective because they are grouped together to create wind plants and provide bulk power to an electrical grid.

Offshore wind turbines tend to be larger and taller than other wind turbines. These turbines capture powerful ocean winds and generate vast amounts of energy.

When wind turbines are placed on the “customer” side of the electric meter or are installed near a place where the energy will be used, they are called “distributed wind.” Sometimes these are smaller wind turbines used to generate electricity for a home or business.

What were some of the similarities and differences between each type of wind turbine?

A typical hydroelectric plant has three components:

• a powerplant where the electricity is produced
• a dam that is opened or closed to control the flow of water
• a reservoir where the water is stored

The water that is trapped in the reservoir escapes through pipes in the dam. When the water runs through the pipes, it turns a turbine that is linked to a generator that produces electricity.

A hydroelectric dam collects water in the forebay, then channels it via the station’s intake into a pipe called a penstock. The penstock carries water to a spinning turbine, which is connected to a generator transforming the rotation of the turbine into electricity. A transformer increases the voltage of the electricity and sends electricity to the power grid.

Humans have been using the energy of the river currents for centuries. Today, hydroelectric power is used to provide approximately 16% of the world’s electricity.

As with wind turbines, hydroelectric dams are a renewable and clean energy source because they don’t release harmful pollutants into the air or water or require any burning of fossil fuels. While they need water to operate, they do not consume the water they are using. As the water cycle runs naturally, there will always be stored water to operate, which makes them very reliable. Hydroelectric dams can also be very large or small depending on the landscape and energy needs.

One of the issues with hydroelectric dams is that if there is a drought or unpredictable weather trends, it may impact water flow. If the water flow is too low, this decreases the total amount of electricity produced.

Additionally, hydroelectric dams can disturb animal migration paths by interrupting the natural water flow affect water quality, and cause wildlife displacement. Hydroelectric dams are also quite expensive to build and since reservoirs are becoming rarer, this cost is likely only going to increase.

Let’s explore three types of hydroelectric dams: impoundment, diversion, and pumped storage.

An impoundment is the most common type of a hydroelectric power system and is typically larger. Water is released from the reservoir, which turns the turbines that spin and activate the generator to create power.

A ‘run-off river’ facility is where a canal uses the natural decline of the riverbed elevation to produce energy. Water is diverted from the river to a forebay, which then runs downhill through the penstock to a spinning turbine, activating the generator to create power.

Pumped storage works like a giant battery in which a facility stores electricity generated from other sources (wind, solar) by pumping water from a reservoir from lower elevation to high elevation.

A geothermal heat pump exchanges heat with the earth, rather than the outdoor air. A geothermal heat pump is more than twice as efficient at cooling as any regular heat pump or air conditioner. This is because of the constant temperature of the ground.

The geothermal heat pump pulls heat from the ground, concentrates it, and moves it to your home, rather than producing heat through the burning of fossil fuels.

Buildings that have geothermal heat pumps will save up to 70% in heating costs and 50% in cooling costs, making it a long-term investment. They are an efficient, clean and renewable energy source that reduces the amount of fossil fuels being burned.

While the efficiency is impacted by outside temperatures, ground source heat pumps are not affected by warm or cold climates because the temperature of the earth remains virtually the same regardless of the air temperature above the ground.

One of the issues of geothermal heat pumps is that they are expensive to install. However, there are generally some rebates (money back) people can get from the government for installing one.

Typically, geothermal heat pumps require the entire ground to be dug up on the property, which means it is easier to install a geothermal system during the development of a new building, rather than on an existing building. It is important to be careful with open-loop geothermal systems as it is sometimes possible that they contaminate the water as it cycles ground water.

Closed-loop systems circulate a water-based solution through underground pipes. This water-based solution consists of water and anti-freeze that either deposits or absorbs heat from the ground, depending on the season. The solution enters a heat exchanger in your home that transfers the heat to a heat pump.

Open-loop systems are an option if water is plentiful and low in minerals. These systems use groundwater from a well or open body of water as a direct energy source.