Power Production of a Wind Turbine

by Ryan Shea

Submitted : Spring 2020

Unfortunately, in today’s world, the ever so limited supply of fossil fuels is depleting, and we need to act. We need to act because fossil fuels are used to produce energy that is consumed on a daily basis. With this depletion happening, we have been realigning our focus towards renewable energy resources, including solar and wind. In this paper I will focus on wind energy. Wind energy is captured by wind turbines where wind rotates the blades attached to the turbine, which is then converted into rotational kinetic energy, and finally, into useable electrical energy. In this paper, we will analyze the derivation of how much power can be produced with variables including wind speed (m/s), blade length (m), Betz limit and other factors affecting power production. This project aims to explore the blade length that will maximize power production, and calculating the total power available, by using known power equations, over a 12-hour time period with varying wind speeds.

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