{"id":1681,"date":"2015-03-27T08:00:53","date_gmt":"2015-03-27T08:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/eng\/?p=1681"},"modified":"2016-11-08T11:51:41","modified_gmt":"2016-11-08T17:51:41","slug":"march_winds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/eng\/march_winds\/","title":{"rendered":"March Winds"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A<\/a>
A field of wind turbines located west of Williams, Iowa Source: Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It is\u00a0the proverbially windy month of March, when the weather\u00a0is widely variable, blowing in warmer temperatures and creating spring storms.<\/p>\n

If you want to see how windy Iowa (or the entire country) is, check out the Wind Map<\/a>.<\/p>\n

How can Mother Natures’s\u00a0ferocious power be harnessed and tamed?<\/p>\n

Driving along Interstate 80, acres of wind turbines rise majestically over the corn fields and blink in the\u00a0midnight sky making the wind industry a vital economic resource. The state of Iowa\u00a0has\u00a0more than\u00a080 wind installations with over 2,500 turbines capable of producing 3,670 megawatts of power. The turbines generated nearly 27% of Iowa’s total electricity in 2013,2<\/sup> and more than 50\u00a0companies are responsible for employing\u00a03,626 people3<\/sup> whose jobs are to manufacture, transport, or\u00a0assemble the giant\u00a0blades and towers, rotors and generators. Even farmers\u00a0are compensated for leasing their land, furthering the benefits to the Iowa economy.<\/p>\n

With towers standing over\u00a0200 feet tall and spinning two or three\u00a0116-feet propeller-like blades, how do these\u00a0behemoth, industrial-sized wind turbines generate electricity? Simply stated, the energy in the wind turns the blades around a rotor. The rotor is connected to a shaft which spins a generator to create electricity. However, to learn more, see how a wind turbine works<\/a>.4<\/sup> Be sure to hover over the different parts for more information.<\/p>\n

As you are out in the last few days of the blustery month of March, consider all the power and energy those winds produce.<\/p>\n

\"Xu,<\/a>
Xu, Xuegen, Yu, Kai, and He, Guorong. Downwind Variable Pitch Wind Turbine Generator. U.S. Patent 20130011262. Filed May 22, 2011. Assigned January 10, 2013. Source: http:\/\/www.google.com\/patents\/US20130011262<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

References & Resources<\/strong><\/p>\n

1 Craig, Ashely, et al. The Wind Energy Supply Chain in Iowa<\/em>. Chicago, IL: The Environmental Law & Policy Center, November 2010<\/a><\/p>\n

2 U.S. Energy Information Administration. Iowa. Quick Facts<\/a><\/p>\n

3 “Iowa projected to add 1,330 energy jobs in 2015.” The Des Moines Register<\/em>, December 15, 2014<\/a><\/p>\n

4 How Does a Wind Turbine Work?<\/a> Source: U.S. Department of Energy. Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy<\/p>\n

5 Iowa Wind Energy Association<\/a><\/p>\n

6 American Wind Energy Association (AWEA)<\/a>\u00a0TC 88 Wind turbine systems<\/p>\n

Books & Standards<\/strong><\/p>\n

Newton, David E. Wind energy: a reference handbook. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2015.<\/a>\u00a0Engineering Library On order<\/p>\n

Edited by Panos M. Pardalos, et al. Handbook of wind power systems. Berlin: Spring, 2014<\/a>.<\/a> Engineering Library TJ820 .H36 2014<\/p>\n

\"Harvest<\/a>
Engineering Library TK1541 .W36 2012<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Warburg, Philip. Harvest the wind: America’s journey to jobs, energy independence, and climate stability. Boston: Beacon Press, 2012.<\/a>\u00a0Engineering Library TK1541 .W36 2012<\/p>\n

Edited by Charalambos C. Baniotopoulos et al. Environmental wind engineering and design of wind energy structures. New York: Springer Verlag, 2011<\/a>. Engineering Library QC931 .E58 2011<\/p>\n

Burthchen, Marco, et al. Material Qualification of Main Bearings for Large Wind Energy Turbines. November 21, 2014. STP 1580, 2014.<\/a> http:\/\/www.astm.org<\/p>\n

Index of Wind turbine standards<\/a>.\u00a0Source: International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is\u00a0the proverbially windy month of March, when the weather\u00a0is widely variable, blowing in warmer temperatures and creating spring storms. If you want to see how windy Iowa (or the entire country) is, check out the Wind Map. How can Mother Natures’s\u00a0ferocious power be harnessed and tamed? Driving along Interstate 80, acres of wind turbinesContinue reading “March Winds”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":87,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"syndication":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1681"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/87"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1681"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1681\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5030,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1681\/revisions\/5030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1681"},{"taxonomy":"syndication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/syndication?post=1681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}