Eli5: Why do some windmills turn while others aren’t?

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Eli5: windmills

Why is it that in an entire group of windmills all facing the same direction and all right next to each other, you sometimes only see one or two moving and the other windmills aren’t moving at all?

I’m driving through California and noticed this, which is prompting my question. I would expect all of them should be turning, so I think they’re either immobilizing most of them, or manually spinning those windmills somehow. In either case, why? Or am I wrong in my assumptions?

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8 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

I know this thread is about modern windmills, but old windmills were used to work giant millstones. If you did not have grain to mill, there was no point in grinding the stones.

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