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Mankind has been harnessing the power of wind for several millennia. The first use we found for wind was propelling sailing craft. Attempts were made at harnessing the power of wind for travel on land, but the need to stay on roads doesn't mesh well with the freewheeling nature of the wind, and they were left in the garbage heap of history. The precursors of modern wind turbines were windmills. These large buildings were designed to either mill grain or pump water, both manual tasks that require a strong influx of power.
The late 19th century saw the first use of wind turbines as a source of electricity. The capacity to create electricity was always there, but it took the invention of the dynamo, and later on, the turbine, to realize that potential. A turbine works by placing a magnet inside a coiled wire. The magnet rotates inside the wire, which creates electric current.
There are two types of modern wind turbines; horizontal axis and vertical axis. Horizontal axis wind turbines are the ones you most likely have in mind when you think about wind mills. They have blades that are on a vertical plane, which are connected at the hub to an axis that is horizontal (or nearly so) to the ground.
Vertical axis turbines are more exotic looking. The axis of the tower is actually the post of the tower itself. The blades of the turbine surround the central post and rotate horizontally. One popular style utilizes a set of helix blades that twist around the circumference of the outer rim. The wind turns the blades and spins the entire structure.
Each style of wind turbines offers a distinct set of advantages, and which is the best choice for you depends on your location, needs, and your local regulations. Horizontal axis towers are taller than vertical axis towers. This is a good thing in most locations, as the higher you get, the better the overall wind strength is. While good for raw output, excessive height can break local regulations for urban areas. Vertical axis turbines on the other hand are usually shorter. They can take better advantage of locations where terrain (such as hills, buttes or mountains) channels the surface air flow into specific spots. Of course, the footprint of a vertical axis turbine is larger than a horizontal axis one, which leads to its own set of issues in an urbanized environment.
Maintenance and performance are other ways in which the horizontal and vertical axis wind turbines differ. For starters, in a vertical axis turbine the gear box and turbine itself are located at the base of the structure. This makes for easy access to them should they require maintenance. However, because the weight of the structure is directly over them, it requires design accommodations for them to be removed without propping the structure up. Vertical axis turbines also perform better at low wind speeds, beginning to generate electricity in much lower wind than a vertical axis.In a horizontal axis turbine the gearbox and turbine are located at the top of the tower, making getting to them a logistical challenge. However they are much easier to remove and replace than the corresponding vertical axis parts are. This is due to the fact that in a horizontal turbine no structural weight rests on the turbine or gearbox, where in many vertical axis turbines it becomes a load bearing portion of the structure. Either way, changing out a turbine that's burnt out is quite an ordeal, one that requires either jacks or a crane, depending on the style.
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