Driving past a field of wind turbines and trying to channel my understanding of waves and energy to remember how these work
In: Physics
Wind pushes on the turbine blades when it blows. The shape of the blades makes the entire blade assembly rotate when pushed by the wind. The rotating top spins an generator, which is a magnet and a coil of wire. As the magnet and wire move relative each other, an electrical current is induced in the wire. This current is electricity.
Think of it like an opposite fan. Instead of usuing electricity to move the fan blades the wind moves the blades to create electricity.
It is the exact same concept as a regular fan just amped up and used the opposite way.
Edit: To add to this you could convert an ordinary fan into a wind generator with nothing but a couple wires and a battery. It would not produce near enough power to have much purpose but it is the exact same concept.
Wind turns fan. Fan turns turbine. Turbine spins and creates electricity. Mechanical energy to electrical energy.
Almost all power is generated by the same fundamental concept of the generator. Spin a magnet in proximity to a coil of wire, and electrons flow through the wire. With a wind turbine, wind pushes the blades, causing them to spin and thus drive the generator.
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