Windfarm wind turbine propellor renewable energy generator
vertical photo of wind farm turbine at caton moor windfarm in lancashire to generate and provide a source of green renewable energy for England Great Britain UK. A wind turbine is a machine for converting the kinetic energy in wind into mechanical energy. If the mechanical energy is used directly by machinery, such as a pump or grinding stones, the machine is usually called a windmill. If the mechanical energy is then converted to electricity, the machine is called a wind generator. This article discusses the energy conversion machinery. See the broader article on wind power for more on turbine placement, economics, public concerns, and controversy, and in particular see the wind energy section of that article for an understanding of the temporal distribution of wind energy and how that affects wind turbine design. Wind turbines can be separated into two types based on the axis about which the turbine rotates. Turbines that rotate around a horizontal axis are most common. Vertical axis turbines are less frequently used. Wind turbines can also be classified by the location in which they are to be used. Onshore, offshore, or even aerial wind turbines have unique design characteristics which are explained in more detail in the section on Turbine design and construction. Wind turbines may also be used in conjunction with a solar collector to extract the energy due to air heated by the Sun and rising through a large vertical Solar updraft tower. Onshore turbine installations in hilly or mountainous regions tend to be on ridgelines generally three kilometers or more inland from the nearest shoreline. This is done to exploit the topographic acceleration where the hill or ridge causes the wind to accelerate as it is forced over it. The additional wind speeds gained in this way make large differences to the amount of energy that is produced. Great attention must be paid to the exact positions of the turbines (a process known as micro-siting) because a difference of 30
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