Renewable Energy Design: Wind Turbines
Students are introduced to renewable energy, including its relevance and importance to our current and future world. They learn the mechanics of how wind turbines convert wind energy into electrical energy and the concepts of lift and drag. Then they apply real-world technical tools and techniques to design their own aerodynamic wind turbines that efficiently harvest the most wind energy. Specifically, teams each design a wind turbine propeller attachment. They sketch rotor blade ideas, create CAD drawings (using Google SketchUp) of the best designs and make them come to life by fabricating them on a 3D printer. They attach, test and analyze different versions and/or configurations using a LEGO wind turbine, fan and an energy meter. At activity end, students discuss their results and the most successful designs, the aerodynamics characteristics affecting a wind turbine's ability to efficiently harvest wind energy, and ideas for improvement. The activity is suitable for a class/team competition. Example 3D rotor blade designs are provided.
![A pie chart shows the total world energy consumption by source: 80.6% fossil fuels, 16.7% renewables and 2.7% nuclear. The renewables pie piece is further broken down into energy sources by a smaller pie chart: 11.44% biomass heat, 3.34% hydropower, with the remaining sources all less than 1% (solar hot water, geothermal heat, ethanol, biodiesel, biomass electricity, wind power [.51%], geothermal electricity, solar PV power, solar CSP, ocean power).](https://teachengwebstorageprod.blob.core.windows.net/te-content-prod/nyu_windturbine_activity1_image1web-396x188.webp)
Total world energy consumption showing renewable and nonrenewable energy sources.Copyright 2012 Delphi234, Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Total_World_Energy_Consumption_by_Source_2010.png
As the world population grows exponentially, the human demand for more energy expands at the same rate. In our highly integrated and technological world, we consume electrical energy (electricity) every day in uncountable ways through the use of computers, mobile phones and so many other electronic devices! Faced with such a large world consumption of energy, concern emerges for our planet's ability to sustain the expanding energy demands into the future, which explains the extraordinary interest in the fields of renewable energy and sustainable environments to address this major global challenge. A brief description of the types of engineers who are innovating in these fields is provided at the end of this document. In this activity, students conduct work as mechanical engineers by understanding, designing and building structural components for energy-efficient wind turbines.
After this activity, students should be able to:
- Explain the physical meaning of energy.
- Describe the different forms of energy and energy sources.
- List, compare and explain differences between renewable energy and nonrenewable energy.
- Explain how a wind turbine functions; describe its six basic components and how it converts wind energy into electrical energy.
- Describe and demonstrate the relationship between wind movement and a wind turbine's aerodynamic features.