The wind energy is the energy of the wind in which the driving force is used in the displacement of sailboats and other vehicles or transformed with a wind turbine device such as a wind turbine or in awindmill in a variously usable energy. It is one of the forms of renewable energy .
It takes its name from Eole, the god of the winds in ancient Greece .
Wind energy is used in three ways:
- Energy conservation mechanics : the wind is used to move a vehicle ( sailing vessel or yachting ) to pump water (mills of Mallorca , windmills pumping for irrigation or watering livestock) or to rotating the grinding wheel of a mill ;
- Transformation into motive force (pumping of liquids, compression of fluids, etc.);
- Electric power generation ; The wind turbine is then coupled to an electric generator to make direct or alternating current . The generator is connected to an electrical network or operates within an “autonomous” system with an auxiliary generator (for example a generating set ) and / or a battery bank or other energy storage device