Modern Technology.
Wind turbine technology has come a long way but still continues to advance at a rapid rate.
There are two main types of wind turbines as shown directly below. Although vertical axis wind turbines receive a lot of attention due to the marketing for their use on rooftops, they rarely will ever provide a good return on investment.
The main parts that make a wind turbine work and sum up their purposes:
Rotor: The rotor is typically made of airfoils that generate motion from the wind. The airfoils are used to “catch” the wind.
Tower: The larger the tower the better. The higher up you go, the more powerful the wind will be.
Generator: The generator takes the mechanical energy created by the rotor and converts it into electricity.
Nacelle: This is the cover housing for the generator.
Brake: Whether electrical or mechanical; the brake allows the wind turbine to mitigate its spin in under wind that is too strong. The brake is usually a last resort as a furling technique or stall control in the airfoil design will slow the turbine down first. Larger turbines have the ability to pitch their blades to reduce the amount of lift from the airfoil.
Yaw: This refers to the ability of the nacelle to turn into the incoming wind so it can capture wind from all directions.

