Modern day windmills are an environmentally friendly source of energy.
Modern technology has evolved the 30-foot farm windmill that pumps water into a 300-foot giant that generates electricity. As of June 2010, the world capacity for generating electricity using wind-operated turbines was 175 gigawatts (GW). Of this capacity, approximately 30 percent of the output came from 1.5 megawatt (MW) wind turbines.
Blade Dimensions
A 1.5 MW wind turbine has three rotor blades. A typical rotor blade ranges from 110 feet to 124 feet long. To put this in perspective, a 10-story building is approximately 138 feet tall.
Blade Composition
Wind turbine blades weigh about 11,500 pounds each. They are made of a composite that is approximately 52 percent glass fiber, 44 percent epoxy resin and 4 percent carbon fiber, all molded on a lightweight wood core.
Facts and Trivia
In 2007, manfacturers produced 43,777 wind turbine blades using 440 million pounds of raw material. A 3-MW turbine, which doubles the output, has a 155-foot long blade. A 1.5-MW wind turbine is engineered to operate at certain windspeeds. The cut-in speed, where the turbine begins to generate electricity, is 11.5-miles-per-hour and the cut-out speed, where the turbine disengages, is 66 miles-per-hour.
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