In high school I learned that gas for coal, wind for wind mill, and tide for water, cause a turbine to spin and that powers an electrical generator and then boom we have electricity. What I want to know is how does the generator convert the kinetic energy of the turbine into electrical energy.
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Most generators are AC generators, so I’ll just talk about those.
On the rotor is are electromagnets. It needs at least a north and south pole, but it’s perfectly possible to have more since that means the turbine can spin slower but produce electricity at a higher frequency. Around the rotor is the stator (the STATionary part) that has coils of wire where the electricity is created, and as the rotor spins the sequence of north and south poles passing near the coil causes a continuously changing magnetic field that has the form of a sine wave. This changing magnetic field creates a voltage in generator coils. The stator has multiple coils spaced out around the rotor. Each one is at a different point on the sine wave, so each one is at a different voltage.
When the generator is connected to a load, the voltage difference between the coils causes current to flow and power the load. This current flow creates its own magnetic field in the stator, and this new field opposes the field on the rotor that made it. This causes the rotor to slow down and is why the generator needs a source of mechanical energy to run. The windmill/turbine is overcoming the counter force* of the electricity the generator is making.
* This is the counter electromotive force (counter EMF on CEMF) other explanations may use
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