What Does a Wind Turbine Look Like?

Horizontal wind turbines look like the fans you might have in your house.
••• Digital Vision./Digital Vision/Getty Images

Wind turbines allow you to generate electricity without producing air pollution or other harmful emissions, using only the power of the wind. The most common wind turbines are horizontal or vertical axis turbines.

Horizontal

Horizontal wind turbines look like household fans. The horizontal shaft of the turbine has large blades attached. When the wind hits these blades, they turn and activate the electricity generator. Horizontal turbines must face into the wind to function, so their heads turn to follow the wind direction.

Vertical

Vertical wind turbines look like the blades of an eggbeater. The central shaft is vertical, and the rotor blades attach at the top and bottom and bow out to the sides. These blades catch the wind and turn the generator. Vertical turbines work when the wind blows at almost any angle, making them a very reliable source of wind power.

Related Articles

How to Build a Wind Turbine for Kids
How Are Windmills Used Today?
How Do Grain Windmills Work?
How to Build a Wind Turbine as a School Project
How to Make Electricity Flow Like Lightning Between...
How to Work a Math Addition Square
Instruments Used to Determine Wind Direction
How to Make a Simple Circuit
How to Calculate the Volume of a Cylinder
What Is the Difference Between a Windmill & a Wind...
How to Calculate Pendulum Force
How to Convert Slope Intercept Form to Standard Form
How to Find Horizontal Asymptotes of a Graph of a Rational...
How Does an Oil Power Plant Work?
Characteristics of Aquatic Plants
What Units Does the Anemometer Measure In?
How to Solve a Parabola
Differences Between a Wind Vane and an Anemometer
How to Calculate a Horizontal Tangent Line
The History of Wind Vanes

Dont Go!

We Have More Great Sciencing Articles!