Wind Concepts

From Wind wiki

---

Most renewable energy comes either directly or indirectly from the sun. Wind energy comes from the differential heating from the sun between the equator and the poles (difference in absorption of solar energy between these climate zones). When the sun warms the air, the air expands (the pressure of air decreases) and rises. Since the pressure of the surrounding cold air is greater and more dense (heavier), this air blows to where the warmer and lighter air was in an effort to equalize this pressure difference. In other words, wind generally blows from areas of high air pressure to areas of low air pressure. If the high pressure area is very close to the low pressure area, or if the pressure difference is very great, the wind can blow very fast.

Although the most prevalent force that generates wind is the pressure difference between air masses, there are also other forces in play. These include: the Coriolis force, centripetal force, and friction forces. These are the forces that not only affect the measurements of the wind, but also how it gets distributed across the land.