How Wind Works
Wind energy is a renewable resource – meaning no matter how much we use today, there
will still be more in the future. That’s why SC Johnson’s Waxdale manufacturing facility has added
two wind turbines, which will reduce carbon emissions equivalent to burning 32 railcars of coal.
Waxdale is SC Johnson’s largest global manufacturing facility and is located in Mt. Pleasant, Wisconsin.
The turbines help further minimize Waxdale’s dependence on fossil fuels, and mean that SC Johnson
has the largest onsite, company-owned wind turbine manufacturing project in the Midwest.
Wind is produced
when the earth
absorbs the sun’s
heat unevenly.
As warm air
rises and cooler
air moves in to
replace it, this
movement of
air is wind.
The wind hits
the turbine,
which is
mounted on
a tall tower to
take advantage
of faster and
smoother wind
speeds at higher
heights.
Wind causes
the blades of
the turbine
to spin. The
average speed
for Waxdale’s
turbines is
9 to 17
rotations
per minute.
4
STEP
3
STEP
2
STEP
1
STEP
STEP
How does wind power work?
The spinning
blades cause
magnets to
rotate around
coils of wire
inside the
generator.
This creates
a current of
electricity.
5
The electric
current is
transformed
into 4160
volts and sent
into Waxdale’s
electrical
system
for use in
manufacturing.
Electricity 101:
Generator: Something that converts mechanical energy (movement) into electricity.
Amperage (also called Current): The number of electrons in motion in an electrical
current. It’s measured in amps. Think of it like the rate of water moving in a pipe.
Voltage: The amount of pressure that’s moving the electrons. It’s measured in volts.
Think of it like water pressure within a pipe.
K ilowatt–Hours (kWh): Energy gets measured in many different ways – by the
gallon for gasoline, the cubic foot for natural gas, or the kilowatt-hour for electricity.
One kilowatt-hour is one hour of electricity at a rate of 1,000 watts/hour.
SC Johnson’s new wind turbines will eliminate 6,000 metric tons of carbon
emissions a year. That’s equivalent to:
The emissions
from 1,176
passenger
vehicles
The emissions
from the energy
use of 519
homes
People have been harnessing the energy
of the wind for thousands of years —
to move boats, pump water or grind grain.
Using windmills to generate
energy has been happening
for more than a century.
It’s like a fan, only backwards!
Think of a wind turbine like a house fan
in reverse. Rather than using electricity
to create wind in front of the fan, wind is
pushing the fan blades to make electricity
on the back end.
The emissions
from 250,000
propane tanks for
home barbeques
Ever played with
magnets as a kid?
Generating electricity isn’t
much different. When you
push a paperclip around
with a magnet, the magnetic field is
pushing electrons through the air, which
creates the energy that moves the clip.
Similarly, if you use a magnetic field to
push electrons through a wire, it creates
electricity that can then travel down the
wire for other uses.
Sources: www.energy.gov | www.howstuffworks.com | www.wikipedia.org |
www.awea.org | www.eia.gov | http://www.unitjuggler.com/convert-energyfrom-boe-to-kWh.html | http://www.epa.gov/cleanenergy/energy-resources/
calculator.html#results
SC Johnson is a family-owned and -managed company that sells products in virtually
every country around the world. Its well-known brands include Glade®, Kiwi®, OFF!®,
Pledge®, Raid®, Windex® and Ziploc®. The company also has a 262-foot-tall wind
turbine in Mijdrecht, Netherlands, that helps power its European manufacturing facility,
and SWIFT mini turbines at its Racine, Wisconsin, headquarters and Lowell, Arkansas
sales office. SC Johnson has cut greenhouse gas emissions for its worldwide factories
by more than 26% since 2000.
Find out more: www.scjohnson.com Follow: @SCJGreenChoices