Wind power gathers speed
Glossary
enhanced greenhouse effect. An increase in the natural process of the greenhouse effect, brought about by human activities, whereby greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, chlorofluorocarbons and nitrous oxide are being released into the atmosphere at a far greater rate than would occur through natural processes and thus their concentrations are increasing. Also called anthropogenic greenhouse effect or climate change.
generator. A machine that converts mechanical energy into electrical energy. In a normal generator, a shaft spins a magnetic rotor. The moving magnet produces an alternating current. (It is the reverse of an electric motor.) Generators are extremely efficient in converting mechanical energy to electrical energy.
gigawatt. The unit of energy is the joule (J) and the unit of power is the watt (W), which is the power involved in doing 1 joule of work (or using 1 joule of energy) each second. This is a very small amount of power and in most mechanical applications, we count power in kilowatts (1 kilowatt = 1000 watts). A kilowatt is about equal to the heat energy put out by a single bar radiator, and is also about equal to the power expended by a person running up stairs. A car engine typically produces 50 to 100 kilowatts. When we consider power generation we use larger units. The megawatt is a 1,000,000 watts or 1000 kilowatts. A typical coal-burning power station produces about 1000 megawatts of power and this is the same as 1 gigawatt.
kilowatt hour. A unit of energy that is normally used to measure the consumption of domestic electricity. The joule (1 watt per second) could be used but the numbers become very large and it is common to use the kilowatt hour (1 kilowatt hour = 3,600,000 joules or 3.6 megajoules).
turbine. A device in which a stream of water or gas turns a bladed wheel, converting the kinetic energy of the fluid flow into mechanical energy available from the turbine shaft. The earliest turbines were water wheels. Now, steam turbines are driven by jets of high-temperature steam; gas turbines are driven by burning fuel vapour; and wind turbines use the power of moving air.
Posted August 1998.