The Girl Who (More Efficiently) Harnessed The Wind
By Marin Alionna Foulds
Junior Category (Grades 7-8)
Innovation | Energy and Natural Resources, Engineering and Computer Science
In Grade Seven, I did a project about wind turbines, which interested me, when I heard that we got the chance to do science fair I looked into it more. I read about how much greenhouse gas burning fossil fuels emitted, and I found that there were an estimated 36.8 billion metric tons of Co2 dumped into our atmosphere in 2019 alone!
Wind energy is a less harmful for the environment, but the making and installation of the turbines does release Co2. Even though wind farms are cleaner they do still have a carbon footprint, if we could change the design and make it even cleaner it would be a step in the right direction. Once I assembled the turbines, which were 3D printed, I set them up in front of a fan and I took videos of the turbine and voltmeter to measure the mV. I did a test to see if the turbines would even work, and after I found that they did I did a test to see if my data was reliable, which it was. Next I printed turbines with a variety of different ratios; the varying of which changed the amount of torque on the blades, and therefore affected the mV outputted by the motor. The outcome of my testing was a turbine that produces more millivolts than an Ugrinsky turbine. My model could be useful in places where there are low wind speeds as a cleaner alternative to burning fossil fuels.
