Wind Power
Most people probably know how wind mills work. Wind makes the wheel turn which is connected to a power generator that will then generate electricity. Just like a bicycle dynamo will produce electricity for the light. The most common ones are called horizontal-axis turbines. But there are also vertical-axis windturbines you might find on buildings in the city.
This image illustrates how a "normal" (horizontal-axis) windmill works. You may also want to check this film on youtube
A vertical axis turbine on a building. They are usually smaller and they don't have to be pointed towards the wind to work
New Concepts
I currently know of two other -new - concepts. of wind power. One is basically a big stick that will vibrate with wind. Its developpers call it the Vortex. They claim that: "It’s less expensive to manufacture, totally silent, and safer for birds since there are no blades to fly into". It produces 30% less energy than the traditional windmills. But due to its ergonomic design (no blades that need a big radius) they can install 2 vortex using the space of 1 conventional windmill.
A prototype of the Vortex. It's around 12m high. The Madris based company is developping and testing different sizes. The Vortex Nano is just 1 meter high and has a power output of 3W. While the big one has an output of 1kW. Please visit the company's
The Basics Of Windmills Explained
Floating Wind Turbines At Sea
There is a lot of sea on our planet. As we don't need most of the surface of the sea for food production or other purposes, the open sea is ideal for wind parks. One of the issues though is that wind generators can only be placed in areas where the sea is not too deep. Because so far wind mills have been installed on the sea bottom. Plus, the drilling and installing in the ground has a negative impact on the surrounding nature and the noise of the drilling actually hurts the whales sensitive ears (yes, whales have extremely sensitive ears which is why they can communicate and hear each other thpusands of miles away!).
New kinds of wind turbines though are floating on the surface and could therefore in theory be places anywhere on the sea and have less negative impact.