Darling Wind Farm opened in 2008.
This Wind Farm, located near the town of Darling, South Africa, is a national demonstration project. It’s the first commercial Wind Farm in South Africa. With just four turbines, it’s a little project with BIG potential!
picture source: elixirgraphics
Remember the pinwheel you had when you were a little kid? (Look under your bed. It’s probably still there.) Remember how you blew air at it, so the blades would turn? Well, imagine a pinwheel that’s as tall as a 17-story building! That gives you an idea of the size of a wind turbine. The turbine works the same way as your pinwheel. The wind blows past the angled blades, turning them around and around.
Each wind turbine is hooked up to wires. When the blades go around, they turn mechanical energy into electrical energy, creating electricity! The electricity travels through the wire to the wires owned by the electric company. It can then be sent to houses, or businesses, or anyplace electricity is needed. The electricity generated from these four turbines can provide enough electricity to meet the needs of 700 households.
Looking straight up from the base of the turbine. It’s tall!
Regular power plants usually burn coal to create electricity. That’s bad news for the environment, because burning coal creates air pollution. Air pollution has carbon dioxide and other poisonous chemicals in it that are harmful to animals and people. The more electricity people use, the more power plants pollute our air.
Wind Farms don’t burn coal. They just use the wind to power their blades, so the turbines don’t create any air pollution. That’s why we call them “Clean Energy” or “Alternative Energy”. Makes sense, doesn’t it?!
Dirk is standing at the base of the turbine.
Some people think turbines are very noisy. They do create a quiet hum, but the noise in my video below is the sound of the wind blowing through my camera’s microphone. It’s louder than the turbine! These turbines are located in a farmer’s field. You can see the turbines don’t scare the cows.
The turbines are built in a place where there’s usually lots of wind. But no matter the wind speed (as long as there’s a bit of wind), the blades turn at 32 revolutions per minute. There are 100 sensors on each turbine that keep taking measurements. The information about wind speed, wind direction, temperature, vibration, etc., are sent to computers so the turbine can be watched from anywhere in the world.
If it gets very windy, the turbine blades still turn at 32 revolutions per minute, even if the turbine has to put its brakes on. If the blades turned too quickly, they would generate too much electricity at once, and would damage the wires.
Technician, Dirk Mostert, and Ms. Christie-Blick inside a wind turbine.
People are concerned about air pollution and climate change. Wind Farms are a cleaner way to create energy than burning coal, oil, or wood. People are also using solar panels that use the sun’s energy, hydro-electric power that uses running water, and other ways to create electricity. It’s good to know that Dirk Mostert and the others working at Darling Wind Farm have found a way to meet people’s needs while also helping the environment, don’t you think?
Each blade is 32 meters long.
Ms. Christie-Blick and Dirk at the door of the turbine.
Wind turbines are a good source of green energy. We need all the help we can get to slow down global warming, so Africa is much needed, too. Wow, the blades are 32 meters long!
I used to think that the tubines were empty and were only turned by wind! I was definetly wrong because there are wires and stuff inside!
I did not know that wind farms are a cleaner way to create energy than burning coal. But if we build more wind power climate change will not be a problem for the next 20- 30 years.
I think it is really cool that Ms. Christie-Blick got to see the wind farm in Africa! I think it is really good that people are developing ways to make energy without polluting the air. It’s great that the turbine can make power for 700 homes!
I never knew that a balde was 32 meters long! That is super long when you think about it. Another thing I found interesting was when you got to go inside the windmills. Windmills are very interesting and i hope to learn more about them.
I hope that they make more wind farms so that we can burn less fossil fuels.
Wind farms are a very good idea. When people are in a poor country with no water or energy, they could build a wind farm to create energy and get water.
It’s amazing how many houses only 4 wind turbines can power. They can power basically the entire staff and students houses
I had know idea how much power one turbine can create enough for 700 house that’s insane!
it cool how the wind turbind can genrate eletcrisite for houses and it whoud be better if every boty usesd wind trubinds to slow down climet chang
I was amazed to know that each blade is 32 meters long and there is 3 blades. Also wind power does not hurt the earth. So if we found a new what to make energy that does not have us burning coal then that is a super good idea and we should make more wind turbines.
I can’t belive that four turbines can provide the needs of 700 households!!! That is so cool!
Its interesting that only four turbines can power 700 house holds.That’s a lot considering that there’s only four turbines. So in other places, There must be a lot more, so it could probably power well over 3000 homes.Thats alot of power.I cant believe that there’s 100 sensors on each turbine. Thats 400 in all!
Wind tubines are so big! I’m so happy that people are building these and helping the Earth.
Wind turbines are harnessing wind power, and creating electricity without putting carbon dioxide into the air. Now South Africa can create clean electricity.
The wind turbines are great for gathering electricity so that people could do stuff that is worth it and so the wind turbines gather electricity and sends it to the electrical company and bam electricity.
I learned that wind farms do not burn coal. This is good because then pollution wont get into the air. Which means we do not have to worry so much about climate change or global warming.
Wind farms are very cool. They generate electricity without burning fossil fuels! It is interesting that they do not make much noise. I thought they would be so loud! I thing there should be wind farms instead of power plants.
Wow thats amazing how wind turbines can turn mechanical energy into electricity energy. I am also fascinated that the electricity can go into building any time!
That’s crazy that each wind turbin is 32 meters long!!!!! I hope that someday America can have turbin’s too.
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There are 100 sensors on each turbine that keep taking measurements. Each blade is 32 meters long. That’s amazing! Each wind turbine is hooked up to wires. When the blades go around, they turn mechanical energy into electrical energy, creating electricity!
So we have those wind turbines that don’t burn anything that creates co2. So have electricity that goes to the electrical company which they could give to us so we could do many activities and still have left over energy.
If wind turbines were used everywhere that has strong enough winds we would be on step closer to slowing down global warming. Witch means a better future for us kids.
Why can’t the wind turbines replace the power plants? If they did, global warming would be slowed down. What if people made smaller wind turbines just to generate for one small town or city? Then less fossil fuels would be burned, slowing down global warming by a little bit.
Wind turbindes have wires attached to them.The wind turbineds preduce energy that run through the wires and into houses.If wind turbindes didn’t exist most people would not have energy running through their houses and would not be able to do surten things like,cook,wash clothes,clean the dishes,ect.This is why we should be greatfull for what we have.
It’s amazing how people are able to do this and help slow down climate change. If we all used wind energy, water energy, or solar panels the world wouldn’t be warming up as fast as it is now.