Wind power is the use of wind energy to generate useful work. Historically, wind power was used by sails, windmills and windpumps, but today it is mostly used to generate electricity. This article deals only with wind power for electricity generation. Today, wind power is generated almost completely with wind turbines, generally grouped into wind farms and connected to the electrical grid.
The Scroby Sands Wind Farm is a wind farm located on the Scroby Sands sandbank in the North Sea, 2.5 kilometres (1.6 mi) off the coast of Great Yarmouth in eastern England, United Kingdom. It was commissioned in March 2004 by Powergen Renewables Offshore, a division of E.ON UK. It has a nameplate capacity of 60 megawatts and is able to produce power to supply 41,000 households. Between 2005 and 2010, its capacity factor was between 26 and 32%. Its levelised cost has been estimated at £105/MWh.
A wind farm or wind park, also called a wind power station or wind power plant, is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundred wind turbines covering an extensive area. Wind farms can be either onshore or offshore.
Crookwell Wind Farm, located at Crookwell west of Goulburn, New South Wales, consists of eight 600 kW wind turbines giving a total capacity of 4.8 MW. It was the first grid-connected wind farm in Australia when built by Pacific Power in 1998. It is now owned by Tilt Renewables.
The United Kingdom is the best location for wind power in Europe and one of the best in the world. The combination of long coastline, shallow water and strong winds make offshore wind unusually effective.
Windy Hill Wind Farm is a wind power station near Ravenshoe on the Atherton Tableland, Queensland, Australia. It has 20 wind turbines with a generating capacity of 12 MW of electricity, providing enough power for about 3,500 homes. The cost of the project was A$20 million. It was the second wind farm to be constructed in Queensland after the 0.45Mw station on Thursday Island (1997).
Greater Gabbard is a 504 MW wind farm, built on sandbanks 23 kilometres (14 mi) off the coast of Suffolk in England at a cost of £1.5 billion. It was completed on 7 September 2012 with all of the Siemens SWT3.6–107 turbines connected. Developed as a joint venture between Airtricity and Fluor, it is now jointly owned by SSE Renewables and Innogy.
Blood Hill is a wind farm near Hemsby in Norfolk, England. It is the smallest windfarm owned by E.ON; taking up 3 hectares. It has a nameplate capacity of 2.25MW which is enough to power 1000 homes at peak. There were 10 Vestas V27-225 kW turbines which were 30 metres tall and stand on top of Blood Hill. They are visible from the villages of Hemsby and Winterton-on-Sea. Blood Hill began operating in December 1992 and was one of the first windfarms in the United Kingdom.
Burton Wold Wind Farm is a wind farm located near Burton Latimer in the English county of Northamptonshire, UK. The farm was developed by Your Energy Ltd, is owned by Mistral Windfarms and operated by Engineering Renewables Ltd. E.ON UK is buying the electricity output of the project under a long-term power purchase agreement. The farm is spread over three hectares. It has an installed capacity of 20 MW and generate on average around 40,000,000 units of electricity annually.
A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. As of 2020, hundreds of thousands of large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, were generating over 650 gigawatts of power, with 60 GW added each year. Wind turbines are an increasingly important source of intermittent renewable energy, and are used in many countries to lower energy costs and reduce reliance on fossil fuels. One study claimed that, as of 2009, wind had the "lowest relative greenhouse gas emissions, the least water consumption demands and the most favorable social impacts" compared to photovoltaic, hydro, geothermal, coal and gas energy sources.
The Lincs Wind Farm is a 270 MW offshore wind farm 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) off Skegness on the east coast of England. The total cost of the project is estimated at £1 billion including electrical transmission links. The farm was completed in 2013. It is adjacent to the smaller Lynn and Inner Dowsing Wind Farm.
Langley Park Wind Farm is a wind farm near Langley Park, County Durham, England. It was developed by EDF Energy and is operated by Cumbria Wind Farms, the farm has a nameplate capacity of 8.2 MW, containing four REpower Systems' MM82 turbines each rated at 2.05MW.
Blyth Harbour Wind Farm is a coastal wind farm located in East Bedlington along the East Pier of the Port of Blyth. Commissioned in January 1993 it consists of nine 0.3 MW WindMaster turbines giving a total capacity of 2.7 MW. It was developed by AMEC Wind and is owned by Hainsford Developments Limited.
GE Wind Energy is a branch of GE Renewable Energy, a subsidiary of General Electric. The company manufactures and sells wind turbines to the international market. In 2018, GE was the fourth largest wind turbine manufacturer in the world.
The U.S. state of Massachusetts has vast wind energy resources offshore, as well as significant resources onshore. The 2016 update to the states's Clean Energy and Climate Plan had a goal of reducing 1990 baseline greenhouse gas emissions levels by 25% by 2020. Current goals include installing 3,500 megawatts (MW) of offshore wind power in the state by 2035. However, as of Q4 2021 the state had only 120 MW of wind powered electricity generating capacity, responsible for generating 0.9% of in-state electricity production. The state has awarded contracts to two offshore projects, the 800 MW Vineyard Wind project and 804 MW Mayflower Wind project. Construction began on the Vineyard Wind 1 project on November 18, 2021, after a long fight for approval. Commonwealth Wind was selected for development in 2021, but the developer has attempted to cancel the project due to increased costs. There are eight projects planned for off the southern coast of Massachusetts, though some will deliver power to Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New York.
The Delabole wind farm was the first commercial onshore wind farm built in the United Kingdom, in November 1991. This field of wind turbines was initially developed by Windelectric Management Ltd.
Dudgeon Offshore Wind Farm is an offshore wind farm 32 km north of Cromer off the coast of Norfolk, in the North Sea, England. It is owned by Dudgeon Offshore Wind Limited (DOW), a subsidiary of Equinor, Masdar and Statkraft. The site is a relatively flat area of seabed between the Cromer Knoll and Inner Cromer Knoll sandbanks and is one of the furthest offshore sites around the UK.
Cold Northcott is a hamlet in Cornwall, England, UK. It is on the A395 road two miles southeast of Hallworthy. It is in the civil parish of St Clether.
Methil Offshore Wind Turbine is a demonstrator site for experimental offshore wind turbines at Fife Energy Park off the coast of Methil, Fife in Scotland.
Dogger Bank Wind Farm is a group of offshore wind farms under construction 130 to 200 kilometres off the east coast of Yorkshire, England in the North Sea. It is considered to be the world's largest offshore windfarm. It was developed by the Forewind consortium, with three phases envisioned - first phase, second phase and third phase. In 2015, the third phase was abandoned, while the first and second phases were granted consent. It was initially expected that the Dogger Bank development will consist of four offshore wind farms, each with a capacity of up to 1.2 GW, creating a combined capacity of 4.8 GW. As of 2023, a total of 277 turbines are expected to be built and produce a capacity of 3.6 GW, enough to power 6 million homes.
