How can wind generate electricity

Global installed wind-generation capacity onshore and offshore has increased by a factor of almost 75 in the past two decades, jumping from 7. Many parts of the world have strong wind speeds, but the best locations for generating wind power are sometimes remote ones.

Offshore wind power offers tremendous potential. Wind turbines first emerged more than a century ago. Following the invention of the electric generator in the s, engineers started attempting to harness wind energy to produce electricity. Wind power generation took place in the United Kingdom and the United States in and , but modern wind power is considered to have been first developed in Denmark, where horizontal-axis wind turbines were built in and a Wind is used to produce electricity using the kinetic energy created by air in motion.

This is transformed into electrical energy using wind turbines or wind energy conversion systems. That changes the kinetic energy to rotational energy, by moving a shaft which is connected to a generator, and thereby producing electrical energy through electromagnetism.

The amount of power that can be harvested from wind depends on the size of the turbine and the length of its blades. Around , the first wind turbines were built in Europe to produce electricity. Today, advances in technology and the need for renewable energy sources has made wind a fast growing source of electricity.

Click on the video for an animation showing how wind turbines generate electricity. On top of each wind turbine is a box known as a nacelle. Attached to the nacelle are three propeller-like blades that connect to a rotor. Also on the nacelle is an anemometer to measure wind speed and direction. The rotating blades turn a shaft inside the nacelle, which goes into the gearbox. The gearbox increases that rotation speed for the generator, which uses magnetic fields to convert the rotational energy into electrical energy.

Some turbines use direct drive technology, which connects the rotating hub directly to the generator. The grid or local network transmits the electricity into homes and businesses.

When the wind changes direction, motors turn the nacelle, and the blades along with it, to face into the wind this movement is called yaw. How wind energy works. There are four key parts to a modern wind turbine: the foundations the tower the nacelle the blade assembly The turbine sits in a steel reinforced concrete foundation — the dimensions of which depend on the size of the turbine.