Wind power is one of our best natural resources, and we’re only just beginning to utilize it to power our world. While humans once used it to power windmills to make flour, we can now use it to generate electricity to power our modern world. But what exactly is wind energy, and how does it work?
Since wind power is the number one type of clean energy we purchase for our members, we’ll guide you through everything you need to know about wind energy and how it’s used.
The most common modern method of harnessing wind energy to generate electricity is the use wind turbines.
A turbine is a rotary device that extracts energy from the motion of a fluid – in this case, the gases that make up our atmosphere – and converts that energy into useful work.
Imagine a fan, but reversed. Instead of using electricity to power a fan’s blades, a wind turbine uses the power of wind to generate electricity. The spinning blades turn a shaft that connects to a rotor. This action is what produces electricity.
