Modern wind turbines can are perched upon a tower that can reach as high as 400-feet. The diameter of the rotor (hub that holds the blades) and blades (really wind foils) can span over 300 feet (each blade can be 150 feet long)
The wind turbine of today’s wind farms is called “Horizontal-Axis Wind Turbines.” These Wind Turbines are made up of three main parts: the tower, the blades, and housing behind the blades called the nacelle (yes just like a jet engine). The moving generator parts are located inside the nacelle; the wind foils-blades drive a generator inside the nacelle and turns mother natures wind into electricity. (Wind is caused by the uneven heating by the sun of the earth’s surface) The direction of the turbines and the angle of the blades are all controlled by hydraulics. This allows precise positioning of the turbine for maximum efficiently. There are tiny wind measuring devices that sit atop of each turbine that refine the placement and direction of the blades.
The blades, are really air foils, are pushed from a high pressure area, in front of the blade, to a low pressure area, behind the blade, created when the wind flows across the blades, this principle is called the Bernoulli Principle and it is the same principle that allows airplanes’ to create lift. The blades are ideally turning at a constant speed and their angle is adjusted to allow for this constant rotation. This rotation then turns a gearbox generator to make AC electricity. The electricity generated is held to a very high standard “clean” AC electricity is the only electricity allowed onto the transmission lines so that the new wind electricity fits together with the current electricity on the grid.