Wind power
Wind power has always attracted they interest of power generation enthusiasts, partially because of its simplicity and partially because of its accessiblity. Stated quite simply, wind is everywhere. The study of optimal windmill location and wind traffic patterns has become increasingly important over the past decade.
Fundamentally, the term power generation is a little missleading. Power is not actually generated, and cannot be generated. Neither can we create, nor can we destroy power. We can only convert it from one form to another. The nomenclature used in the field has been bastardized over years of nerdy discussion, but is missing a key point. When refering to generators, it is important to use electrical power generation because electrical power is generated from other forms of power.
From my perspective, wind power is particularly relevant because of the current technology used to generate power. In most cases, electricity is generated from rotating mechanical power. For millenia, humans have been using wind power to create rotational mechanical power in one form or another. Additionaly, wind power is readily available around the world, and possesses (at times) extreme amounts of power, so intuitively it seems logical and practical to use wind to rotate a prime mover.
Based on this rationalle, I decided to delve into the world of home power generation using wind as the prime source of power.