Wind Energy Engineers

If we're talking about what has occupied the world's attention for decades, it won't be wars and conflicts, epidemics and disease, or poverty and famine — those things have existed for thousands of years. The greatest danger threatening humanity with extinction is what scientists call "climate change." The climate crisis is directly tied to the steadily rising temperature of the planet, caused by the carbon emissions released from burning fossil fuels like oil and natural gas. Fossil fuels aren't a threat to humanity only because of their devastating environmental effects — the fact that they'll eventually run out poses an even bigger challenge for future generations, who may find themselves without the primary source of electricity generation. The world has known for decades that we have no choice but to rely on renewable energy sources like solar, wind, and hydropower, which will never run out and pose no threat to the environment. Today we're going to talk specifically about one of the most prominent renewable energy sources: wind power. Wind is available all over the world, day and night, everywhere on this planet, and generating power from it doesn't require huge costs — as you can see, it's essentially tall poles with giant blades called "turbines" that generate power. These turbines are built in specific geographic locations, in deserts or at sea, and those dedicated areas for generating wind power are called "wind farms." Of course, choosing the right geographic locations and building the turbines and installing their parts is handled only by a number of experts specialized in this field, known as "wind energy engineers," and in the lines ahead we'll learn about the nature of their work and what they do every day in this industry.

Meet the Writer: Waleed Abo Omiraa