Wind Farms:

Dr Hill is blown in

We decided where to place the turbines and power lines.

    On Wednesday, 3rd March, Dr Hill came to talk to us about wind farms.

   First we talked about where we should put up wind turbines. The best places to put them are in the sea and on hills, but not right on the top!!

Children point out on the white board the best places to put the wind turbines.

Wind turbines off the North Wales coast a few miles from Deganwy

    Dr Hill showed us some pictures of wind turbines in the ocean and explained how to get the windmills into the sea. The wind turbines in the sea have to have yellow bottoms in case ships crash into them.

   After talking about windmills in the sea, Dr Hill showed us a film on her lap-top. It was about the sea-bed and how some windmills might disturb the animals and creatures in the sea. She showed us some coral called dead man's fingers and they really looked liked rotten fingers! Then we watched another film about dolphins and you could actually hear them communicating with each other. The sea bed shown on the video was just off the Lleyn Peninsula in North Wales.

Looking at a video on the lap-top

   The wind turbines are about 100 metres high. All the blades are 30 metres long and the main shaft is about 70 metres long. The shafts in the sea are made up of two sections. The base (yellow in colour) is placed in first and then one section is placed inside another.

   One large wind turbine can produce enough energy to light up about 100 houses.

Making electricity from old fashioned power stations creates pollution.

   Dr Hill brought a model and showed us all the different parts eg. the gear box, blades and the main tower.

   We really enjoyed the visit and we certainly learnt a lot. We are all thinking whether we should use more of this alternative energy.

   Thank you very much Dr Hill for visiting us.

                                                Year 4