On Wednesday, March 2nd all classes in the Elementary School
were part of special presentations on Wind Turbines and Sustainable Energy. The presentations
were geared to each grade level. Mr. Jim
Roycroft from the RMSenergy Dalhousie Mountain Wind Farm joined
us for the entire day delivering information on Wind Turbines. He shared that 34
turbines generate over 175,000 megawatt hours of clean, renewable energy: enough
to power 20,000 residences. That's more electricity than is needed to provide
light, heat and hot water to all the homes in Pictou County, where the wind
farm is located.
His presentations included a time lapse video on the construction of a
wind turbine, photos of the inside of a turbine, a scale model of a wind
turbine especially built for our school, photos and facts on the benefits of
wind energy. Along with this was a demonstration showing how the energy in the wind
turns the three propeller-like blades around a rotor. The children watched as
the wind blew the rotor connection that turned a generator and created electricity.
The lights in a mini house lit up with the electricity generated by the wind! Many questions were also asked and all were answered.
Did you know that the longer the wind turbine blade, the more electricity
produced? A wind turbine blade can be up
to 78 metres long and a turbine tower can be over 99.9 metres tall!
Thank you for the pictures, Mr. Kane.
