What Is Wind Energy?

Wind power or wind energy is a form of renewable energy that harnesses the power of the wind to generate electricity. It involves using wind turbines to convert the turning motion of blades, pushed by moving air (kinetic energy) into electrical energy (electricity). This requires certain technologies, such as a generator that sits at the top of a tower, behind the blades, in the head (nacelle) of a wind turbine.

This aerial view shows how a group of wind turbines, which can be part of a wind power plant or wind farm, make electricity. The electricity created can either provide power to specific needs (like a wind turbine powering a streetlight or isolated farm) or contribute to the electric grid, which then powers homes, businesses, and schools with the help of transmission and distribution cables (or power lines).

How Does Wind Energy Work?

A wind turbine showing the inside parts with components labeled
Graphic by Josh Bauer, NREL

Wind blowing above the ground spins the blades attached to the top of a wind turbine tower. Moving air rotates a wind turbine’s blades. That turning motion spins a generator just downwind from the blades (or rotor) in the nacelle, which also stores all the other working parts of a turbine. The generator produces electricity.

View the wind turbine animation to see how a wind turbine works or take a look inside.

A typical 2.8-megawatt (MW) utility-scale wind turbine could produce enough electricity to power just under 1,000 American homes(link is external) (with 1 gigawatt being several utility-scale turbines). And wind turbines are growing taller; the bigger, the more energy they may be able to produce. New designs for blades help wind turbines generate more power and address other issues, such as material use, recyclability, or noise.

Windmills, sometimes confused with wind turbines, traditionally use the power of wind to turn blades that then rotate a grinding stone, rather than a generator, to pulverize grains into powder, like wheat into flour for baking.

Learn more about how wind turbines work on the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Wind Energy Technologies Office website.

What Are the Different Types and Applications of Wind Energy?

Wind turbines provide electricity that can either be used at the site where it’s generated or transferred to the electrical grid. Typically, the size of a turbine determines how much energy it can produce, although technology is improving to increase turbines’ efficiency.

The term “distributed wind energy” (sometimes called “onsite wind energy”) refers to turbines installed locally to meet nearby energy needs. Distributed wind energy installations are typically used by a community, company, utility, or homeowner to power their specific needs.

The term “utility-scale” refers to typically large turbines installed either on land or in water that are used to generate large amounts of electricity to feed into the three major electrical grids in the United States (Eastern, Western, and Texas’s grid).

Regardless of size, wind energy projects connected to the electrical grid require utility approvals and sometimes grid impact studies before construction can begin, along with other permitting and zoning requirements and regulations.

Plants that combine multiple forms of energy are called hybrid power plants. For example, wind turbines and solar power technologies, as well as energy storage devices, can complement each other in what is commonly known as hybrid renewable energy systems. These systems combine different renewable energy sources to enhance overall efficiency, reliability, and energy output. The combination of wind and solar power is one of the most popular hybrid configurations.

Click to view the two uses of wind energy.

Why Use Wind Energy?

There are many important reasons we should use wind energy.

It is a renewable energy source, meaning we can keep creating energy as long as wind blows. Improvements to turbines help them become more efficient, providing affordable, reliable energy to the grid, homeowners, or communities even in regions that are less windy.

Wind energy can be used in many places, including isolated or remote areas, like islands, that are not able to access the utility grid for power. Wind farms can be installed both on land and offshore, taking advantage of wind currents across the United States and along its coastlines.

There are also financial benefits and economic advantages to installing wind energy. It has a low cost of energy (cost to produce while operating), and wind turbines can help homeowners and communities reduce utility bills, benefit from financial incentives, create jobs, and even profit from selling extra energy a turbine on their land might make.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s supports wind energy research, development, demonstration, and deployment activities that enable and accelerate the innovations needed to advance offshore, land-based, and distributed wind energy systems; reduce the cost; drive deployment in an environmentally conscious manner; and facilitate integration with the electric grid.

Click on each to learn more about distributed energy uses.

What Are the Impacts of Wind Energy?

Wind energy has very few disadvantages. Most concerns that impact social acceptance of wind energy revolve around how wind farms interact with society, such as location (including property value effects and land use), health and safety, the environment and wildlife, local communities, radar interference, and the economy or finances. It is important to consider how wind turbines can coexist with the environment.
  • People stand outside reviewing a wind farm experiment

    In addition to identifying the best location, researchers:

    To mitigate the potential impact to communities, there are a number of ongoing efforts to work with local communities to better understand their priorities and address these concerns.

More Resources

Back to WINDExchange

Related Topics

Back to WINDExchange