Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form of energy, such as using wind turbines to make electricity, windmills for mechanical power, windpumps for water pumping or drainage, or sails to propel ships.
The total amount of economically extractable power available from the wind is considerably more than present human power use from all sources.[3] At the end of 2010, worldwide nameplate capacity of wind-powered generators was 197 gigawatts (GW).[4] Wind power now has the capacity to generate 430 TWh annually, which is about 2.5% of worldwide electricity usage.[4][5] Over the past five years the average annual growth in new installations has been 27.6 percent. Wind power market penetration is expected to reach 3.35 percent by 2013 and 8 percent by 2018.[6][7] Several countries have already achieved relatively high levels of wind power penetration, such as 21% of stationary electricity production in Denmark,[4] 18% in Portugal,[4] 16% in Spain,[4] 14% in Ireland[8] and 9% in Germany in 2010.[4][9] As of 2011, 83 countries around the world are using wind power on a commercial basis.[9]
الرئيسية 
