Everyday Science · 45 sec
Wind turbine
The science behind something you encounter, use, or wonder about.
The useful idea
- Wind turns blades
Commercial power production horizontal-axis turbines usually have three blades, upwind of their towers.
- Wind farms scale up
As of 2024, hundreds of thousands of large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, were generating over 1,136 gigawatts of power, with 117 GW added each year.
- Wind becomes electricity
A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy.
Why this matters
Look for Wind turbine the next time you notice this pattern in everyday life.
Try this
Look for Wind turbine the next time you notice this pattern in everyday life.
Test your recall
Which idea belongs to the explanation of Wind turbine?
- Wind farms scale up
- Wind turns blades — correct
- Wind becomes electricity
Commercial power production horizontal-axis turbines usually have three blades, upwind of their towers.