Energy Efficiency | Green Buildings and Infrastructure
We have already discussed how Energy Efficiency can be achieved in different structures. In the previous article, our main focus was on Bio-climatic architecture. Bio-climatic Architecture forms a part of the Principles of Green Building Architecture.
It is necessary to understand the relationship between Bio-climatic Architectural Design and the way in which the Wind energy is harnessed.
We have already discussed the use of Wind turbines for the generation of electricity. We will be discussing the mechanism of Wind turbines in detail.
Wind Turbines
Wind Turbine is a rotary devices which utilizes mechanical energy and converts it into electrical energy. Windmills that extract the energy from the wind and utilize the mechanical energy for cutting of lumber, pumping water etc have been used since ancient times.
Windmills came into picture in 200BC. They have first been used in Persia and then a better and practical version of the windmills has been observed in Sistan, a region between Afghanistan and Iran in the 7th century.
Later on, after the industrial revolution, the concept of using the wind power with the help of wind turbines to generate electricity was discovered.
If the mechanical energy is instead converted to electricity, the machine is called a wind generator, wind turbine, wind turbine generator (WTG), wind power unit (WPU), wind energy converter (WEC), or aerogenerator.
Relationship between between the use of wind turbines and Bio-climatic Architecture
The Wind Turbines cannot be installed anywhere. They require a suitable location for their erection and their proper functioning. Wind Turbines are suitable in terms of huge constructions taking place at a higher level from the sea level.
For examples, they can be installed in order to generate electricity for the industry.
Or they could simply be used to generate electricity for small towns and villages which have developed at a height.
We have to consider Bio-climatic architecture if we are set up a wind turbine for an industry setup. The orientation and location of the building should not create a problem for the installation of a wind turbine. Suitable location should be reserved for the erection of wind turbine. It should preferably be located in the direction of the wind so that it can capture enough wind energy so as to convert it into mechanical energy.
The use of wind power is becoming more common in the design of Data Centres. It’s estimated that Data Centres, which house internet, business and telecommunications systems and store the bulk of our data, consume close to 4 percent of the worlds power supply. Such huge clusters of servers not only require power to run but also power to be cooled. see http://www.datacentredesign.co/electrical-index.php
The current volume estimate of all electronic information is roughly 1.2 zettabytes, the amount of data that would be generated by every person in the world posting messages on Twitter continuously for a century. More stunning: 75 percent of the information is duplicative. By 2020, experts estimate that the volume will be 40 times greater than it was in 2010. Google has recently installed a windmill farm at its new data centre in the Netherlands. The facility will run primarily off the utility grid, with the wind power helping reduce its usage of grid electricity.
Apple has recently commited to renewable power for US data centres
The company says it plans to use exclusively solar power to run all three of its high-consuming server centres.
A lot of people around the globe are becoming aware of the predicament of our environment. Global warming has become a important issue these days that ever more people are prepared to spend money and effort to do what they are able to to assist cool our planet. Fossil fuel is not any longer a realistic possibility as a supply of energy. Along with solar power, wind power is clean and environment friendly. For this reason alone, millions of Americans are buying home wind power kits so that they will be able to construct their own renewable sources of energy. ‘
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