Front view of wind turbine in Spanish wind farm
A wind turbine is a rotary device that extracts energy from the wind. If the mechanical energy is used directly by machinery, such as for pumping water, cutting lumber or grinding stones, the machine is called a windmill. If the mechanical energy is instead converted to electricity, the machine is called a wind generator, wind turbine, wind power unit (WPU), wind energy converter (WEC), or aerogenerator. Spain is the world's fourth biggest producer of wind power, after the United States, Germany and China with an installed capacity of 16,740 megawatts (MW) at the end of 2008, a rise of 1,609 MW for the year.[1][2] Wind energy has consolidated as the third technology of the Spanish power system in 2009, having reached an output of 36,188 GWh, only overtaken by thermal gas combined cycle at 78,364 GWh and nuclear that reached 52,741 GWh. For the first time in the annual calculation, wind has overtaken coal that produced 33,844 GWh. In the entire year, wind energy has covered of the demand, compared to in 2008.[3][4]
Size: 5250px × 3500px
Location: Cadiz, Spain
Photo credit: © leandro hermida / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: andalusia, aspas, azul, blades, blue, cadiz, cielo, clouds, cloudy, electricidad, electricity, energia, energy, eolico, exterior, farm, generator, green, nubes, outdoors, parque, power, produccion, producer, production, productor, renewable, renovable, sky, sol, spain, sun, tres, turbine, uno, verde, viento, wind, windy
