And why are they so terrifying to look at in person?
In: Engineering
The props are attached to a gear box which increases the RPM by about 35x (Usually to 1,400RPM). The generator is then attached to the grid.
The turbines have to manually face themselves in the direction of the wind, so they also have a motor that will turn the turbine to face the wind. They also have brakes to slow down the props if they go too fast, or to stop them completely if the wind exceeds 55mph. The blades can also be pitched to increase efficiency, or to prevent the high winds from damaging the blades during a storm.
They work because they efficiently convert linear wind energy into rotational blade motion which turns a generator to produce electric energy.
As for why they are terrifying, perhaps you are Don Quixote, and fortune has provided you with giants to encounter.
There’s a gearbox in there somewhere also. So 1 spin of the giant ass blades amps out several hundred spins of a shaft inside a coil.
Same concept as a hand crank flashlight except the hand is the wind and the 3 blades are the crank and instead of turning on a light it powers a few homes!
The 3 blades are on a rotor, the rotor is connected to a shaft, and when they spin, it powers a generator inside
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