Wind Power Technologies

Wind turbines convert the movements of air molecules blown by the wind into rotational energy, using the turbine blades to turn an axle connected to a generator. The rotational energy in the generator is converted to electricity which is fed into a transformer and then on into the local grid.

Modern wind turbines are based on aviation technologies. Most have three blades connected to a horizontal axle in a rotor head that can turn to face into the wind. Turbines have been getting larger in recent years. Modern turbines almost always have capacities of at least one megawatt, and the largest units currently available are 5 MW models.

When the wind doesn’t blow

Since wind speeds vary, wind turbines cannot produce energy consistently, and sometimes they may not be able to generate any electricity. This means that wind power cannot be relied on as the sole source of energy, and energy users must have access to electricity from other sources to fill in any gaps in production. Like all other forms of power production, unpredictable stoppages may also occur occasionally for technical reasons.

In Finland these problems are not serious, as there are few days when there is no wind at all, and wind power will only be used to produce part of the country’s electricity. If total wind power capacity eventually exceeds the total variations in electricity demand, this would make Finland dependent on wind power for part of the baseload demand for energy, so a reserve power source would have to be available for when wind conditions are unfavourable.

In Finland such demand could be met using hydropower and/or gas and coal fired power plants. The common Nordic energy market NordPool is well equipped to cope with short-term fluctuations in production and consumption levels, largely thanks to the flexibility of hydropower production.