Renewable Energy: Wind

Creating sustainable energy is a challenge that engineers are helping solve to meet the world's need for clean and consistent power sources. This unit explores wind as a renewable energy source. Students explore aspects of wind power including designing, building, and testing anemometers and wind turbines (windmills).

We are facing many issues with conventional energy sources (fossil fuels, hydropower, nuclear) that are leading engineers to develop innovative alternative renewable energy sources (wind, solar, biomass) to manage the impacts of energy production on the natural environment. Engineers design wind turbines to produce electricity from the force of the wind. Turbines look like pinwheels with angled blades connected to a gear box, which is connected to a generator. Engineers collect and analyze wind data to continually improve turbine technology and wind farm design.