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Heavy storms, Volcano and other natural disasters have been a major threat to most world power countries like Japan, Russia, the United States of America, and even China.
According to the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reductions, there has been a rise in climate-related disasters during the past 20 years. In 2020, 20th May precisely, India was hit by one of the strongest storms - Cyclone Amphan, which claimed the lives of over 85 persons.
And in February 2021, Two back-to-back winter storms popularly known as Uri and Viola hit the United States of America. The storms claimed the lives of over 82 people left extensive.
These are just a few cases that happened recently. So, to help curtail these natural disasters, engineers are working day and night to ensure that humans can survive these nature’s tantrums. This was what gave birth to different wind turbines, which include Horizontal and vertical wind Turbines.
However, a “normal” wind turbine can withstand wind speeds of up to 42.5 meters per second, or about 94 miles per hour, generating clean electricity for a variety of power needs. For Horizontal wind turbines, they have the ability to collect the maximum amount of wind energy for the time of day and season and their blades can be adjusted to avoid high wind storm.
The question now is, with the power Horizontal Wind Turbines produce, can they serve as alternative means of protection against storms in this age of deforestation?
Read on to know!
Before delving into this properly, let’s discuss briefly about Horizontal wind Turbines in terms of their nature and how they operate.
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WHAT IS HORIZONTAL WIND TURBINES
Horizontal Wind turbines is a type of wind Turbine. They are generally used and by far, the most common design. Basically, HWT as it’s commonly called has a different number of designs commercially available ranging from 50 W to 4.5 MW.
When it comes to what HAWT does, there are a lot of things it does with the power it generates. First, it produces renewable energy for different power needs-power to large and small wind farms, homes, and other settings. Aside from that, its generated power can help protect the environment against storms.
HOW IT OPERATES
Horizontal Wind Turbines in generating power uses aerodynamic blades fitted to a rotor, which enables it to be positioned upwind or downwind. It typically operates at high blade tip speeds with either two or three aerodynamic blades. With the aerodynamic blades, it lifts force to turn each rotor blade just like airplane flies.
The lift force generally works as follows. When exposed to winds, air flows around both the upper and lower portions of a blade.
As a result of the blade’s curvature, however, air passes over the top of the blade more quickly (owing to a longer fetch length) than the lower portion, producing a low-pressure area on the topside.
The pressure difference created between the top and bottom sides of the blade produces a force in the direction of the top of the blade.
UPSIDES
Horizontal Wind Turbines have many advantages which is the reason most people desire them more than any other windbreakers. Some of the reasons include:
• They are the most reliable and widely used design.
• Many big – grid-integrated – commercial wind turbines today use three-bladed horizontal axis designs.
• Horizontal axis wind turbines have the ability to collect the maximum amount of wind energy for the time of day and season and their blades can be adjusted to avoid high wind storms.
• They have a lower cut-in wind velocity and a higher power coefficient, which results in greater device performance and energy yield.
• Also, they have taller towers. These towers could be used to take advantage of the greater wind capacity available at higher elevations. This would be a big benefit at locations with high wind shear, where the velocity at higher levels could be considerably higher.
DOWNSIDES
Even with the numerous advantages, HAWTs have, they also have shortcomings. Some of the shortcomings include:
• The taller towers have to complicate and increase the cost of construction and maintenance.
• Once again, the higher mast height can make HAWT visible from a greater distance, potentially exacerbating issues with wind farm visual impact.
• To orient the turbine toward the wind, HAWTs need yaw drives (or, in the case of small turbines, a tail mechanism).
• The heavy generator and gearbox units must be mounted over the tall tower, which necessitates stronger structural protection. This complicates and increases the cost of HAWTs. There is more control over the angle of attack, which can be optimized by varying blade pitching.
• The worst is that HAWTs need a brake mechanism to enable them to slow down the rotor blades when there is a strong wind.
• Furthermore, wind turbine maintenance is hard and huge construction is needed to ensure that the heavy blades, gearbox, and generator are well supported.
CAN HORIZONTAL WIND TURBINES GENERATE POWER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGAINST STORMS?
Yes, every wind turbine whether a horizontal or vertical wind turbine is capable of generating power for environmental protection against storms and any unforeseen circumstances.
A horizontal wind turbine has a cut-in speed that makes the blades rotate and generate power. More electricity and power is been generated as the wind speeds increase.
When it gets to the rated speed which is the limit at which it can generate power, it cuts out speed and shut down. This is done in other to prevent unnecessary strain on the rotor.
Now, this is how it works!
Generally, wind turbines have an anemometer and wind vane. While anemometers are used in measuring wind speed, Wind vanes are used to track the wind and know its direction.
When the anemometer registers wind speeds higher than 55 mph (cut-out speed varies by turbine), it triggers the wind turbine to automatically shut off.
When a modern utility-scale is surpassed by wind speeds, the horizontal wind turbine blades start to feather. Either it feathers or it points into the wind to reduce their surface area. In some cases, the blades lockdown or shut down.
Note, when the anemometer measures speed at or below the turbine's cut-out speed, the blades unfeather and resume normal operation, making available renewable energy back to the grid.
The diagram above illustrates the process.
Currently, there’s enough wind power capacity in the U.S. to generate enough electricity to power more than 15 million homes, helping pave the way to a clean energy future.
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