Background
Wind power is a renewable energy source that transforms the energy of the wind’s motion into electricity.
In 2024, wind power accounted for 8.1% of global electricity generation through land-based, offshore, and distributed wind turbines (overview of wind turbine types).
As of May 2025, there are 76,051 wind turbines in the US, with the average turbine installed since 2020 producing enough electricity in 46 minutes to power a US home for a month.
History
The earliest record of using wind energy is from depictions of sailboats in Egyptian art over 7,000 years ago (see example).
Around 4,000 years later, windmills in Mesopotamia were used to grind grains and pump water for irrigation. In the Middle Ages, windmills were used to extract salt from seawater, cut wood in sawmills, and, in the Netherlands, drain water from flooded terrain to create farmland (watch explainer).
Austrian engineer Josef Friedländer installed the first electricity-generating windmill in 1883 at the Vienna International Electrical Exhibition, but its prohibitive cost limited adoption to isolated residences and laboratories.
The 1973 oil crisis drove government investments in alternative energy sources, accelerating the development of new wind power technology and the manufacturing of commercial wind turbines.
The world’s first wind farm was installed in New Hampshire in 1980, followed by the first offshore wind farm in Denmark in 1991. The first floating offshore wind farm began operating off the coast of Scotland in 2017.
Since the 1990s, wind turbines have become larger and taller (see data). As of 2023, land-based wind power is less expensive per kilowatt-hour than solar power (1440 Topics: Solar Power).
How It Works
Wind turbines generate electricity through electromagnetic induction, where an electric current is created from the changing magnetic field of a rotating magnet (watch explainer).
The blades of a wind turbine resemble the wings of a plane. When air passes across them, a region of low air pressure forms on one side, producing lift (watch how airplanes fly).
This force pushes the blades, which rotate a shaft connected to a gearbox. The gearbox increases the rotation speed of magnets inside a generator to a frequency that matches the alternating current of the power grid (see overview).
A vane measures wind direction and sends data to the yaw drive, which can turn the turbine for improved efficiency. An anemometer measures wind speed for the controller, which ensures the turbine only runs at safe speeds: 6 to 50 mph (or 10 to 80 kph).
A pitch system changes the angle of the blades to precisely control the shaft's rotation speed, and a brake can park the turbine for maintenance or emergencies. Explore an interactive of these components here.
Wind power is limited to windy environments, often far from energy-hungry cities. Wind turbines produce noise equivalent to a refrigerator and are known to kill birds, though at lower rates than cats and window collisions (learn more).
Future
The US Department of Energy projects that 35% of electricity generated in the country will come from wind power by 2050, amid the ongoing installation rate of 3,000 wind turbines yearly since 2005.
Wind turbines are expected to continue increasing in size and improving their energy generation capacity. This will lower turbine rotation speeds and the number of turbines needed in each new wind farm to produce the same energy, reducing cost, wildlife impact, and noise (learn more).
While energy transmission and storage improvements are expected, some startups are exploring placing data centers inside hollow wind turbine towers to take advantage of their excess power or generating even more power through airborne wind turbines.
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