How does each significant part of the turbine help in turning wind power into electricity?
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A wind turbine has blades (typically 3) that are carefully shaped airfoils, like the wings of an airplane. They produce lift which causes them to spin. They are thin because that is how you make the most efficient wing.
The blades are attached to a shaft which is either attached to a gearbox and then a generator or directly to a much larger generator. The gear box exists to increase the rotational speed so that a smaller and cheaper generator can be used.
The generator produces AC electricity similar to your house but it [usually] has the wrong frequency. You probably saw “50-60 Hz” on just about any electronic device you plug in, that’s the frequency. So, a wind turbine also has a large power converter to change the varying frequency of the generator (it changes depending on how fast it spins) to the very stable frequency of the electric grid. Without doing this, power would flow incorrectly, sometimes even backwards, and things would explode.
The tall tower is there to get the blades up higher where the wind is faster. Faster win means much more power.
When there is too much wind, the blades can each rotate independently so that they face into the wind and stop producing lift to cause them all to spin. This is how they control their maximum power.
To make sure that the turbine is always pointed the right way, the whole top can also rotate to point the right way. Otherwise, you would produce no power if it was turned sideways.
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