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Solar cells or wind powered turbines, but initial cost is horrendous.

However, in the UK at the moment there are Government backed schemes for these Green Energy sources where you can actually put power back into the National Grid, when you are not using it, or generating an excess for your own usage and get paid for it. Again initial costs are mind blowing.

admin answers:

Where I live there is a five star rating on all new housing so people have to install either solar or a rainwater tank. In europe there is even a 10 star rating system. As we are in a long term drought our water use is limited and many people use a grey water system for flushing their toilets and watering their garden. Solar passive design of a house can go a long way to reducing its energy needs and requires being smart rather than costing a lot. The retrofitting of existing housing stock is expensive but there are many simple inexpensive things you can do like switching off lights and unused appliances at the socket, install a reduced flow shower head and a dual flush toilet. Check the energy use of appliances before you buy them. If you’re cold put on a jumper before you crank up the heating. If a room is always hot grow a tree or vines outside to cut out the sun. Buy second hand and choose items without packaging and that are produced locally. It’s about your behaviour as much as the buildings you live in.

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Technicians go to trade school. Designers and planners need a BS in Engineering.

admin answers:

Mostly mechanical engineers, but electrical engineers for the generators, structural engineers for the structure.

Most things are designed by teams that cover multiple fields.

Edit: correction: technicians and workers make the wind turbines, engineers design them.

admin answers:

I dont want to copy the entire article from the site—please do visit the link below for full information

A wind turbine is a machine for converting the mechanical energy in wind into electrical energy. If the mechanical energy is used directly by machinery, such as a pump or grinding stones, the machine is usually called a windmill. If the mechanical energy is then converted to electricity, the machine is called a wind generator

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_turbines
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Http://www.howstuffworks.com/search.php
http://windpower.getfast.info/wind_power/?kw=small%20wind%20electricity%20systems,wind%20turbine

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It seems no matter how many time this is asked and answered it keeps coming back. Simple logic should tell you that if you look at the head on profile of the blades they describe a circle as they spin and at any given moment the blades occupy a tiny percentage of that circle. There is also the tower that holds the blades up but again they are usually only a few meters wide and the arch of the blades is usually at least 10m above the ground for safety. If you wish to talk about stopping the wind a forest has far more of an effect.
The average wind generator is only ~50-70m high, most wind effect relates to precipitation and cloud movement/formation which occurs well above this height, even the largest wind generator in the world, has by comparison a small blade area and with a metal mesh tower that offer quite small wind resistance. The Troposphere is ~10km high which is a little more than 50 or even 200m.
Http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuhrl%C3%A4nder_Wind_Turbine_Laasow
At least you didn’t ask if they slow the Earth’s rotation, which believe it or not, has also been asked before a number of times.

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That’s the Obama Administration for you. Screw the American worker, while pumping us up about job creation. Obama has done this before where he’ll bring in European-made wind generator components, and have them assembled by Chinese engineers. Something tells me this might be a deal Obama worked out to help pay off the money we are indebted to China. But the real purpose is to once again, pull the rug out from American workers.

Knowing the lack of oversight in China, I’m sure the metal beams and supports will have to be replaced in a matter of a few years before they rust out and collapse. So I don’t think there will be a lack of work for the welder. But this will be another signature failure, courtesy of Obama.

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Im not a local but i lived there two years but didnt you see the news on yahoo front page this morning that it is being evactuated from 100 mph winds and huge snow storms on the way………….. When i lived there it was full of hard ship and expense so if you researched alotta information on the place its not an easy place to live even when the above is not taking place…… Its earthquake ridden also… As you know winter its dark all but two hours summer its sunlight all but two hours really screw ur sleeping up gets down to ninety below zero way too much snow tires go flat every day battery heaters necessary the food was very expensive there in seventys alcan high way was horrible to drive on….. Im sure its changed a teeny bit..housing expensive … Marijuana there of course…… If the power goes out you freeze to death so you need a generator…….. Its an adventure and great photography but for now GOD is not happy at ALASKA…..

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You can consult buildings, and electrical devices and material stores on your locality if you want to assemble one by yourself or call some retailers for international companies such as Bonus Turbine of Denmark.

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I think they are beautiful and should count as a sculpture. It is a perception issue. We are a glutenous nation and we tolerate smog, but not wind turbines or solar panels.

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Hey Marcus, there are two reasons, cost and efficiency. The old grain mills had to transmit the torque to the building at the bottom mechanically, they didn’t have electric generators and voltage regulators in those days, if they did, they would certainly have run a pair of wires down that tower instead of some gears and push rods. The other reason, efficiency, is a bigger player today than it was 100 years ago. Most modern turbines today, which generally have 3 long slender blades instead of a dozen or so square metal ones can convert about one third of the energy in the moving column of air to electricity. The old style turbines you saw on farms centuries ago were maybe 5% efficient. The other reason for those big rectangular blades was starting torque, mainly to start the water pump. They were not interested in having the thing run well, or at all in 100 mph winds with tremendous RPM’s, it would simply destroy the entire mechnism.

We run our home on solar and wind right now. Our wind turbine is a commercially made unit a little bigger than a ceiling fan, but can develope almost 1000 watts in good wind. It is small and light enough to take up to the top of the tower in a backpack and install by hand with ordinary hand tools, that was the main reason we selected it. For our home, we should have a larger one, maybe 1500 watts or so, but the weight of the generator almost requires the use of a small crane at that point. I do not know of anyone using helicopters to install or service rotors today. The large commercial ones actually have ladders built into the inside of the tower, and space to work inside the tower top housing. Smaller ones like mine either go on a Rohns Guyed Lattice tower, or similar type of tower, which has a ladder built into the framing for climbing, or they use a crane truck to reach the top.

In our experience the last 11 years, the only thing that needs periodic service is the electronics, regulators, and batteries, which in our case is at the bottom of the tower. In fact, those devices are all in our battery room in the garage. Our previous turbine was a smaller unit with the generator and electronics all in the housing. Each time the regulator burned up or malfunctioned, the entire unit had to come off the top of the tower. This was the main reason we upgraded to the unit we have now. Exposure to the elements, gusty winds and even lightning never seem to bother the generator itself, so we make very few trips up the tower these days. Take care Marcus, Rudydoo

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Here is a great website if your looking to make your own wind turbine at home.

Www.Squidoo.com/HomeMade-Green-energy