How is electricity generated using wind turbines?

Answer 1

There are two basic ways we have today of generating electrical energy:

1). Photovoltaic panels, those greenish-blue glass things that when the sun

shines on them, you can get electricity out of them.

2). An electrical generator ... there are two wires hanging out of, and when you

spin the shaft, you get electrical energy out of the wires.

Method #2 has always been the more common.

-- At hydroelectric dams, falling water turns the generator shaft, and you get

electrical energy out of the wires.

-- At coal-fired, oil-fired, or gas-fired electric plants, you burn coal, oil, or natural gas,

boil water with it, use the steam to turn the generator shaft, and you get electrical

energy out of the wires.

-- At nuclear power plants, you use the heat from uranium fission to boil water,

use the steam to turn the generator shaft, and you get electrical energy out of

the wires.

-- In your car, you use a belt off of the gas-engine to turn the generator shaft,

and you get electrical energy out of the wires.

-- In a wind farm, you put up a giant pinwheel in a place where the wind always blows.

The wind turns the pinwheel, the pinwheel turns the generator shaft, and you get

electrical energy out of the wires.