Squiz Kids acknowledges the traditional owners of the lands on which we podcast the Turrbal and Gadigal people.
Squiz Kids!
It's your daily news fix.
Fun, free, fresh.
Welcome back to Planet Warriors, the podcast where we power up our brains and plug into the facts about energy and the amazing ways kids like you can help our planet thrive.
And, along the way, get to meet the band of super connected superheroes powering the path to a brighter future.
I'm Bryce Corbett and today we're riding the breeze, chasing the gusts and spinning into action, because we're talking all things wind energy.
You felt it tug at your jacket, flip your umbrella and send your hat cartwheeling across the playground.
But have you ever stopped to wonder what wind actually is?
What makes it move?
And how do we catch it and turn it into power for our homes, schools and cities?
To help us unravel the mystery, we've got a very special guest.
He's fast, he's fun, and he's full of hot air.
Well, hopefully not too much.
And he's a proud member of the Planet Warriors Super Connected superhero crew.
Whoosh, did somebody call for a breeze with brains?
I'm gust and i'm here to spin you the story of how i help power the world, one windy day at a time.
All right, gust first, things first.
What is wind?
It's air on the move, but not just any move.
The sun heats up the earth unevenly.
Land warms faster than water.
Dark cities soak up more heat than snowy fields.
And mountains and valleys play by their own rules.
So hot air rises, cooler air rushes in to fill the gap, and that moving air, that's wind.
Ah, like when steam rises from a kettle and the kitchen breeze moves in to cool it down.
Exactly.
And there's more.
Because the Earth is spinning, the wind doesn't move in a straight line.
It swirls, thanks to something called the Coriolis effect.
That's why winds curve and create patterns like trade winds, jet streams and cyclones.
So wind is powered by the sun, shaped by our planet, and always moving.
Time to talk turbines.
How do we turn moving air into electric power?
Well a wind turbine is a little bit like a giant pinwheel.
When the wind blows it pushes the blades around.
That spinning motion turns a shaft inside a turbine, which is a big machine that contains spinning bits of machinery.
And that shaft is connected to a generator.
And guess what the generator makes?
Electricity.
The electricity flows through cables zooming off to power homes, schools and even entire cities.
Whoa.
So those enormous spinning blades that I've seen on the tops of hills, all set up in great big rows in waters off the coast, are wind turbines and they're generating electricity.
That is incredible.
And some of those turbines are taller than a 30-storey building, right?
Sure are.
And just one spin of an offshore turbine which are the ones that you see in the ocean can power an Aussie home and keep your fridge and telly and lights and devices powered for two whole days.
Wow.
Now, Gust, I've been hearing a few, let's say, surprising things about wind energy.
Some people believe that wind turbines out at sea are dangerous for whales or bad for our health.
Others think they don't even work most of the time, especially when it's not windy.
It's important we treat these ideas with respect, because often they come from concern for our planet or our communities.
But here at Planet Warriors, we don't just go with the flow.
We go after the facts.
So...
Let's talk to someone who really knows their stuff.
Yes, let's call in the expert.
Joining us now is Associate Professor Jonathan Whale, an Australian researcher who works with wind turbine systems.
He knows exactly how they work, how they're evolving, and what's true and what's not.
Professor Whale, thanks for joining us.
Thank you.
It's nice to be on your program.
Now, first of all, I have to ask, is Professor Whale your real name or is that a stage name?
Well, it actually is my real name, but I can say that I've never been harmed by a wind turbine.
Well, good.
We're about to come to that, because can you tell us first of all what your job is and how you help bring wind energy into people's lives?
Okay, so I'm an associate professor in energy studies at Murdoch University and I teach people about wind energy and I also research in wind energy too.
I look at different types of wind turbines.
I look at offshore wind turbines, which are turbines out in the sea.
You know, we don't have too much impact on birds and bats and whales and all of those things.
On the subject of which, there are some people who say that wind farms are hurting whales.
What does the science actually say, though, Professor Whale?
Well, the science says there's no evidence for that.
There are lots of things out there human activities that do hurt whales and climate change is one of the big ones but also just hunting of whales.
The noise that we create underwater is a big problem.
And you sometimes get whales that might strand themselves on beaches.
And there are different reasons for that.
But one of them is that they become disoriented because of the noise that we create underwater through shipping or through drilling.
Having said that, when we put in an offshore wind turbine, there's a foundation.
Sometimes we need to drill that into the seabed and it creates a bit of noise.
But what we have is a curtain of bubbles.
We call it double bubble.
And it goes around the And it dampens the noise that goes out to the whales.
Amazing.
We also create a siren that tells the whales you know there's going to be activity in that area and it warns them off.
And I think one of the best things is we know what times of year that there's going to be lots of whales in the area.
So we don't put in the turbine foundations in that time of year.
So you go to a lot of effort to make sure that when you are putting a wind farm out at sea, that it's not going to impact any sea life like whales.
That's right.
And that there are environmental laws and regulations.
What about one of the other things we sometimes hear is that wind turbines kill a lot of birds.
Is that true?
Well, they do kill birds and birds do collide with wind turbine rotors and towers.
But it's a very small number compared to things that kill billions.
Of birds like cats are the obvious one.
But then you have mobile phone towers, power lines, cars, buildings, all of these things.
But there are things that the wind turbine industry has learned.
So one thing is don't have a tower that's easy for the birds to perch on.
Don't make it attractive for the birds to come to the wind turbine.
Paint one of the blades a different colour.
Because as it spins round, it's much easier for the birds to see that blade spinning round.
But also we use things like radar.
So radar can detect a bird early before it comes close to the wind turbine.
And then the radar can send a signal to the wind turbine to slow down or stop while that bird is going past.
So we have learnt over time to be a lot more aware of the birds in the area and to plan accordingly.
Amazing and what about people who say that wind turbines don't work when it's not windy?
Wind turbines are putting out power all the time.
I mean only if it was very, very light winds, they would be stopped and not putting out power.
But What happens is that they are not putting out full power all the time because the wind is constantly going up and down.
And it's just like with any renewable energy, like wind or solar.
Sometimes the wind is strong, sometimes it isn't.
Sometimes the sun's behind a cloud.
Sometimes it isn't.
So the output goes up and down from these generators.
And that's why we need our renewable energies in combination with energy storage, so that when we have a lot of wind power, we can store it for times later when we don't have a lot of wind power.
And that's the importance of this energy storage.
And it's very typical to have a big battery that you'd use.
But there are other forms of energy storage that scientists are looking into.
And finally, if you could bust one big myth about wind power for kids and their parents, what would that be?
I think one thing that I often hear is that people say wind turbines only work 30% of the time.
And I often wonder where.
That's very specific.
Where did people get?
And so what the truth is is that on a good wind site, a wind turbine will only be producing full power 30 of the time.
But it's available all of the time.
It's just the wind is going up and down and sometimes it's not producing as much as at other times.
And so, in terms of its availability to produce power, wind turbines are there 98 of the time they're available to produce power.
And if you compare that with a coal-fired power station, that's only 70 or 80% available.
Because there are times when it needs maintenance and you have to shut it down.
But there's no other machine that humans have built that is out there rotating as much as a wind turbine is rotating throughout its lifetime.
So for squiz kids, when they look out the window and they see the trees are bending and it's a big windy day, they know that there's energy being produced out there.
And that energy's been coming from a source that's free and plentiful.
Professor Whale, thank you so much for joining us.
You're welcome.
So the next time the wind tangles your hair or flips your brolly inside out smile, because that same force might just be powering your PlayStation.
And if someone tries to blow hot air about wind being dangerous or useless you, Planet Warrior, can blow them away with the facts.
Thanks, Gust.
And thank you, listeners, for tuning in to another episode of Planet Warriors.
We'll be back next time with an episode where we can go with the flow.
We're talking hydro and tidal power.
Until then, stay curious, stay windy, but not the one I've been eating too many beans type of windy and keep being planet warriors.
