Wind is energy
Wind is caused by the sun as it heats the earth’s surface. This includes both land and sea, both of which absorb the sun’s radiation differently.
Warm air rises from the surface of the earth, and cold air moves into the ‘space’ previously occupied by the warm air. Air therefore moves from an area of high pressure to an area of low pressure, creating the wind.
Here’s a simple example. A sea breeze is caused when the warm air over land rises, and cooler air is drawn in from the sea.
The earth’s rotation also plays a role, influencing the direction of wind as the earth rotates. Better known as the Coriolis effect, the rotation of the earth causes the path of objects to curve. Without the Coriolis effect, wind would move from north to south and south to north (from the perspective of the north and south poles respectively). Thanks to the earth’s rotation, northern hemisphere winds generally curve to the right and southern hemisphere winds to the left.
Short answer: Wind is caused by the sun, the movement of air from areas of high to low pressure, and the rotation of the earth.
