Making Electricity from the Wind

Making Electricity from the Wind

1Have you ever flown a kite on a breezy day? Wind is moving air, and it can push things with surprising strength. For a very long time, people have used the wind to do work. Sailors used it to move ships across the sea. Today, the wind also helps us make electricity.

2A machine called a wind turbine does this job. A turbine has a tall tower with long blades at the top. When the wind blows, it pushes the blades, and they turn around and around. The blades are connected to a shaft inside the machine. The spinning shaft turns a generator. A generator is a part that changes spinning motion into electricity.

3Next, wires carry the electricity from the turbine to homes, schools, and stores. One turbine makes only some of the electricity that a town needs. For that reason, builders often place many turbines together. A group of turbines is called a wind farm. Wind farms are built where the wind blows often, such as open plains, high hills, and the ocean near the shore.

4Wind power has some good points. A turbine does not burn fuel, so it does not make smoke. The wind is also free and will never run out. But wind power has limits, too. On days when the air is calm, the blades barely move. Because of this, towns also need other ways to make electricity. Even so, wind farms are a growing source of clean power.