Every 24 hours, wind generates enough kinetic energy to produce roughly 35 times more electricity than humanity uses each day. And unlike coal or oil, this resource is totally renewed each day. So how can we harness this incredible amount of energy, and is it possible to create a world powered entirely by wind?
Wind-capturing technology has come a long way since the early days when windmills pumped water or milled grains, but the basic concepts are still the same: Wind can be put to work for us in wonderfully useful ways.
Learn how today’s wind turbines convert wind into electricity with this TED-Ed lesson by Rebecca Barthelmie and Sara Pryor, animated by Gavin Edwards of Movult. Then dig deeper with these additional resources.
File under clean energy and watch these next:
• Moving Windmills: The William Kamkwamba story
• The 1,000 year old windmills of Nashtifan
• The physics & engineering of windmills in The Netherlands
• The time lapse assembly of wind-power turbines
• How to Save Our Frozen Worlds: Clean Energy
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