How do wind turbines make electricity? Simply stated, wind turbines work the opposite of a fan.

Instead
of using electricity to make wind—like a fan—wind turbines use wind to make electricity. The wind turns
the blades, which in turn spins a generator to create electricity. To see how a wind turbine works, click
on the image for an animated demonstration.

How Wind Creates Energy

Wind is a form of solar energy caused by a combination of three concurrent events:

1. The sun unevenly heating the atmosphere

2. Irregularities of the earth's surface

3. The rotation of the earth.

Wind flow patterns and speeds vary greatly across the United States and are modified by bodies of
water, vegetation, and differences in terrain. Humans use this wind flow, or motion energy, for many
purposes: sailing, flying a kite, and even generating electricity.

The terms "wind energy" and "wind power" both describe the process by which the wind is used to
generate mechanical power or electricity. Wind turbines convert the kinetic energy from the wind into
mechanical power. This mechanical power can be used for specific tasks (such as grinding grain or
pumping water) or a generator can convert this mechanical power into electricity.

A wind turbine turns energy in the wind into electricity using the aerodynamic force created by the rotor
blades, which work similarly to an airplane wing or helicopter rotor blade. When the wind flows across
the blade, the air pressure on one side of the blade decreases. The difference in air pressure across the
two sides of the blade creates both lift and drag. The force of the lift is stronger than the drag and this
causes the rotor to spin. The rotor is connected to the generator, either directly (if it's a direct drive
turbine) or through a shaft and a series of gears (a gearbox) that speed up the rotation and allow for a
physically smaller generator. This translation of aerodynamic force to rotation of a generator creates
electricity.

Types of Wind Turbines

NREL 42794, Mike van Bavel (Left), NREL 50000, Suzanne Tegen (Right)

Modern wind turbines fall into two basic groups:

1. Horizontal-Axis Turbines: Horizontal-axis wind turbines (pictured right) are what many people
picture when you think of wind turbines. They most commonly have three blades and are
operated "upwind," with the turbine pivoting at the top of the tower so the blades face into the
wind.
 2. Vertical-Axis Turbines: Vertical-axis wind turbines (pictured left) come in several varieties,
including the eggbeater-style Darrieus model, named after its French inventor. These turbines
are omnidirectional, meaning they don't need to be adjusted to point into the wind to operate.

Wind turbines can be built on land or offshore in large bodies of water like oceans and lakes. The U.S.
Department of Energy is currently funding projects that will make offshore wind technology available in
U.S. waters.

Sizes of Wind Turbines

NREL 15109, Tom Walsh (Left), NREL 47307, Dennis Schroeder/NREL (Right)

Utility-scale wind turbines range in size from 100 kilowatts to as large as several megawatts. Larger wind
turbines are more cost effective and are grouped together into wind farms, which provide bulk power to
the electrical grid.

Offshore wind turbines are larger, can generate more power, and do not have the same transportation
challenges of land-based wind installations, as the large components can be transported on ships
instead of on roads.

Single small turbines—below 100 kilowatts—are typically used for residential, agricultural, and small
commercial and industrial applications. Small turbines can be used in hybrid energy system with other
distributed energy resources, such as microgrids powered by diesel generators, batteries, and
photovoltaic. These systems are called hybrid wind systems and are typically used in remote, off-grid
locations, where a connection to the utility grid is not available, and are becoming more common in grid
connected applications for resiliency.

When wind turbines of any size are installed on the "customer" side of the meter, or are installed at or
near the place where the energy they produce will be used, they're called "distributed wind." You can
learn more about distributed wind from the Distributed Wind Animation or read about what the Wind
Energy Technologies Office is doing to support the deployment of small and mid-sized turbines for
homes, businesses, farms, and community wind projects.

What is wind energy?

Wind energy (or wind power) refers to the process of creating electricity using the wind,
or air flows that occur naturally in the earth’s atmosphere. Modern wind turbines are
used to capture kinetic energy from the wind and generate electricity.

There are three main types of wind energy:

  Utility-scale wind: Wind turbines that range in size from 100 kilowatts to several
megawatts, where the electricity is delivered to the power grid and distributed to
the end user by electric utilities or power system operators.

 Distributed or "small" wind: Single small wind turbines below 100 kilowatts that
are used to directly power a home, farm or small business and are not connected
to the grid.

 Offshore wind: Wind turbines that are erected in large bodies of water, usually
on the continental shelf. Offshore wind turbines are larger than land-based
turbines and can generate more power.

How wind turbines work

When the wind blows past a wind turbine, its blades capture the wind’s kinetic energy
and rotate, turning it into mechanical energy. This rotation turns an internal shaft
connected to a gearbox, which increases the speed of rotation by a factor of 100. That
spins a generator that produces electricity.

Typically standing at least 80 meters (262 feet) tall, tubular steel towers support a hub
with three attached blades and a “nacelle,” which houses the shaft, gearbox, generator,
and controls. Wind measurements are collected, which direct the turbine to rotate and
face the strongest wind, and the angle or "pitch" of its blades is optimized to capture
energy.

A typical modern turbine will start to generate electricity when wind speeds reach six to
nine miles per hour (mph), known as the cut-in speed. Turbines will shut down if the
wind is blowing too hard (roughly 55 miles an hour) to prevent equipment damage.

Over the course of a year, modern turbines can generate usable amounts of electricity
over 90 percent of the time. For example, if the wind at a turbine reaches the cut-in
speed of six to nine mph, the turbine will start generating electricity. As wind speeds
increase so does electricity production.

Another common measure of wind energy production is called capacity factor. This
measures the amount of electricity a wind turbine produces in a given time period
(typically a year) relative to its maximum potential.

For example, suppose the maximum theoretical output of a two megawatt wind turbine
in a year is 17,520 megawatt-hours (two times 8,760 hours, the number of hours in a
year). However, the turbine may only produce 7,884 megawatt-hours over the course of
the year because the wind wasn’t always blowing hard enough to generate the
maximum amount of electricity the turbine was capable of producing. In this case, the
turbine has a 45 percent (7,884 divided by 17,520) capacity factor. Remember—this
does not mean the turbine only generated electricity 45 percent of the time. Modern
wind farms often have capacity factors greater than 40 percent, which is close to some
types of coal or natural gas power plants.
Windmills vs. Wind Turbines
Sometimes people use the terms “windmill” and “wind turbine” interchangeably, but
there are important differences. People have been using windmills for centuries to grind
grain, pump water, and do other work. Windmills generate mechanical energy, but they
do not generate electricity. In contrast, modern wind turbines are highly evolved
machines with more than 8,000 parts that harness wind's kinetic energy and convert it
into electricity.

What is a wind farm?

Oftentimes a large number of wind turbines are built close together, which is referred to
as a wind project or wind farm. A wind farm functions as a single power plant and sends
electricity to the grid.

How wind energy gets to you

The turbines in a wind farm are connected so the electricity they generate can travel
from the wind farm to the power grid. Once wind energy is on the main power grid,
electric utilities or power operators will send the electricity to where people need it.

Smaller transmission lines, called distribution lines, collect electricity generated at the
wind project and transport it to larger "network" transmission lines, where the electricity
can travel across long distances to the locations where it is needed. Finally, smaller
distribution lines deliver electricity directly to your town, home or business. You can
learn more about transmission(Opens in a new window) here.
https://www.awea.org/wind-101/basics-of-wind-energy

https://www.energy.gov/eere/wind/how-do-wind-turbines-work