Main wind farm for wind power generation

What is a wind farm?

Wind farms are areas where a number of wind turbines are grouped together, providing a larger total energy source. As of 2018 the largest wind farm in the world was the Jiuquan Wind Power Base, an array of more than 7,000 wind turbines in China’s Gansu province that produces more than 6,000 megawatts of power.

Can a wind turbine power a home?

One wind turbine can power an individual home or farm, but several built close together form a wind energy plant, or wind farm. Wind plants can be land-based or offshore, and they can be hybrid plants (meaning, they include other sources of energy, such as solar energy).

How do you get power from wind energy?

There are several ways to get power from wind energy. Wind turbines can be built on land, on lakes or in the ocean, in remote wilderness far from the power grid, within cities, or across vast plains. One wind turbine can power an individual home or farm, but several built close together form a wind energy plant, or wind farm.

How much energy does a wind farm produce?

Globally, wind energy capacity surpasses 743 gigawatts, which is more than is available from grid-connected solar energy and about half as much as hydropower can provide. Nearly three-quarters of that 651 gigawatts comes from wind farms in five countries: China, the U.S., Germany, India, and Spain.

What is a wind plant?

Wind plants can be land-based or offshore, and they can be hybrid plants (meaning, they include other sources of energy, such as solar energy). Wind energy researchers are trying to learn how many wind turbines built in which arrangements can maximize energy production in wind plants.

What is a land based wind farm?

While land-based wind farms may be remote, most are easy to access and connect to existing power grids. Smaller turbines, often used in distributed systems that generate power for local use rather than for sale, average about 100 feet tall and produce between 5 and 100 kilowatts.