How are windmills a better way to create electricity?
What is a windmill and how do they work?
Windmills are large structures that are built to use the wind to be able to do things, such as create electricity using wind power and the energy from the wind. Another word for windmills when it comes to electricity is wind turbines. Wind turbines use the wind to create motion so that an electric current can be made, which is called wind power.
What are the benefits of wind power?
Some of the benefits for using wind power are that it is cost-effective and it creates more jobs for more people. Using wind power is pretty good on expense and can be cheaper than some other ways to create electricity, such as a power plant. Another benefit for using wind power is that it has a clean fuel source. Using wind make very little messes except if it might be the structure that is the problem but mishaps with the wind turbines do not happen very often. Although places like power plants can have the chance of a lot more mistakes. For instance, if they were to have a oil spill or perhaps someone accidentally put some sort of substance in the wrong area. Wind is easy to get and it is also very sustainable and is controlled quite easily.
Wind power can be great for the environment and if something went wrong like an earthquake, the worst that can really happen is the wind turbines wall down and break. If you take a huge power plant with many substances that can be dangerous to the people around you and then have something break it like an earthquake, then people have a huge mess on their hands. Windmills are also usually built on existing farms and ranches, which is away from the city or town. This is great for if something were to happen were the windmill might fall, this is in a place were there are barely any people for it to land on.
In Canada more wind power plants have been built in the span from 2009 to 2019 than any other form of electricity generation. The wind turbines are creating enough electricity for over three million Canadian homes. This is doing a lot of good for us and hopefully we can build more in the future.
What some of the challenges and issues that can come with windmills?
Everything can have its challenges and issues and these are some of what using wind power might bring. Firstly, wind turbines can noise, some turbines only cause a bit of noise that does not bother the people around them and some can cause a little more noise. The people who might live near a wind mill might get kind of annoyed at the noise but it isn’t insanely loud it is just the wind being contained and motioned into electricity.
Another problem is that wind power plants have barely any impact on the earth and its environment compared to conventional power plants but some people think that having these huge structures in the middle of a ranch or farm can be a bad impact on how the land looks. Although having seen some photos taken of windmills on open land it quite pretty or cool looking. Another problem is that good wind sites are usually far away from where the electricity is needed more. Windmills have to be on open land where there is more wind for the structure to harness, if the turbines were in a place such as a city it would be covered by things like buildings, and if there were an accident and one came down it would not harm anyone if it were farther away from people.
Wind resource development might not be the most profitable use of land. Someone might either want to buy that land to use as a farm or live on, or they might have a bigger money flow coming in on that land if they were to replace the windmills with something else. This can make it hard to find land to build more mills on or just keeping the mills on the land that they are already on. Many people are fond of using wind power but the only thing someone might not like if living beside on is the small bit of noise. 
What would I say to Justin Trudeau about windmills?
If I had the chance to talk to Justin Trudeau about wind power and turbines I would tell him that windmills are a better way of creating electricity and that I believe we should build more of them instead of conventional power plants. This is because it costs less, it is less dangerous, and less problematic. It would continue to make more jobs for more people and it would be better for the environment. That is why it is better to use windmills to make electricity.
Questions & Answers:
What questions did you need to ask in order to research your topic?
- How do they work?
- How much electricity does it make?
- Is it cheaper?
- How many are there in Canada?
- Does most of our electricity come from windmills?
- Does it need a lot of people to work them?
- How do most people think about them?
What new or familiar digital tools did you try to use as worked through this project?
Throughout doing this project I used google chrome, edublog, word, and notes. I used google chrome to research, then I used word and notes to write down all the things I had learned in point form. Then finally I went to my edublog to write all the points into my words then arranged the project properly and posted it.
What was the process you used to investigate the topic?
First, I started to make some questions on what I would need to know. Then I researched, checked, and noted it. After that I formed the points into paragraphs. After that I answered the questions and put everything onto edublog, which is where I organized it and added pictures, tags, and titles.
How did you verify and cite the information you found?
I would usually first search my question and then go onto a website that seems to be pretty correct from some of my understanding, then I would go to one or two other websites and if they all had the same facts I would use that information.
How did the process of completing this challenge go? What could you have done better?
The process of doing my project went quite well. I used all my time accordingly and spaced the project out so that I would not have to much to do on the day before. All in all I believe it went pretty well.
Bibliography:
www.energy.gov
canwea.ca
www.nationalgeographic.com
www.nrcan.gc.ca
now.tufts.edu
unsplash.com
kidsdiscover.com