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We all know that the wind gives energy that can be transformed, first of all, in mechanical energy: rotational, making rotate a paddle wheel, or linear, making move a sail boat, a glider or, more naturally, allowing the birds' flight that Leonardo da Vinci had carefully studied for many years of his life, in the XV-XVI centuries.
When wind energy makes move a wheel, we can easily convert this rotation into electric power if we fix the wheel to a turbine (equivalent to a dynamo), creating, in this way, an AEROGENERATOR.

The electric energy production depends on wind speed, measured in m/sec and the relation between wind speed and electric power generated is represented by means of power curves, characteristic for every model of aerogenerator.

Today, we have aerogenerators able to produce from 500 KW (KiloWatts) to 3000 KW, much more powerful than the models built only 20 years ago that produced maximum 25 KW.
This improvement is the result of an intense engineering research in this field, to reduce internal friction and optimize the paddle wheels shape.

In effect, the idea of exploiting wind energy to create useful work for man is very ancient; it's enough to mention windmills (become frequent in Europe, starting from the Middle Ages), used to move the millstones for flour production from cereals.
The actual modern aerogenerators don't grind anymore cereals, in most of cases, but they are extremely advanced in their aerodynamic design, in materials and can automatically follow the main direction of wind.
Normally, aerogenerators don't produce electric power with every wind speed but have a minimum threshold so that, below a certain wind speed, named CUT-IN SPEED, (about 3 m/sec) the wheels don't generate energy.
The same occurs above a maximum wind speed, the CUT-OUT SPEED (normally about 25 m/sec) to avoid damage to the turbine.

A 1300 KW aerogenerator can provide this energy power (its maximum) with a wind speed of 12-24 m/sec.
For this reason, to calculate the yield of a generator in a date zone for a certain period, it's necessary to know the local AVERAGE WIND SPEED; for ex., with an average wind speed of 4.5 m/sec, aerogenerators can produce about 1.2 GW (GigaWatts) every year while, with an average speed of 9 m/sec, this power raises to about 5.3 GW/year.
So, it's very important to choose the best site to install aerogenerators and, normally, the best places, with medium-strong and constant winds, are the coastal regions, the off-shore platforms, the valleys and

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