POWER FROM THE WIND.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2297, 2 July 1921, Page 4

POWER FROM THE WIND.

Many attempts have been made to solve the problem of efficiently utilising the wind to generate electricity. The difficulties arise from the extreme variations in the force of the wind and from the liability, even in windy regions, to periods of calm during which no power can be obtained. These conditions suggest that wind power should be used only as an auxiliary to some other source of energy, such u> the burning of coal or oil. Hitherto the usual plan has been to use a large slow-speed windmill to drive a dynamo at a high speed through gearing—a rather wasteful arrangement. During the war, however, there was in Great Britain a remarkable development in the design and construction of small high-speed dynamos on •croplanes. These dynamos were diroct-eoupled to . propellers, or rather “impellers,” driven by the wind created by the aeroplane in (light. A British firm has devised a scheme for fitting three or more of these wind-dynamos on the swivelling top of a vertical pole: with a vane to keep them in position against the wind. Each equipment gives GO watts, and the arrangement forms a cheap and efficient auxiliary to the ordinary country house lighting installation. The energy produced is, of course, stored in accumulators in the usual way.