How to Build a Wind Turbine - A Basic Overview

This article is for anyone who may be interested in learning about how to build a wind turbine and how wind turbines generate energy for use in residential homes. There is so much information out there on renewable energy and recently there has been an explosion of information on how you can build and use renewable energy in your home.
In order to try and cut through all of this information I'd like to help you out with this basic overview of how windpower works and how to build a wind turbine in its simplest form.

All wind generators consist of these 5 basic components:
1. Rotor blades
2. Shaft
3. A generator
4. Batteries - electrical control system
5. Inverter/transformer
When trying to understand how to build a wind turbine and how windpower works, it is easiest to look at each of these components.

A wind turbine generates renewable energy by capturing the kinetic energy in wind through the rotor blades. This kinetic energy is capture in rotational from which is then transferred through the shaft and fed into the generator. It is the generator that is then able to turn that rotational (kinetic) energy into electric energy (electric current). In its most basic form, generating electricity from a wind turbine is all about transferring energy from one medium to another.

As you can see, the process begins with the rotor blades that are turned by the wind creating the rotational kinetic energy, as the blades turn, the rotor hub (the central hub of the rotor blades) turns the shaft that is connected to the generator. The generator receives this rotational kinetic energy and turns it into an electric current which is then fed down into the electrical control system where it is either stored, or transformed into a household energy current and fed into the home electrical board.

The tower is an important part of the wind turbine. Its purpose is to hold the main parts of the wind generator in an optimal position to capture as much wind energy as possible. However, when considering the height of your tower it is important to keep in mind how you will be able to rotate the wind generator towards the wind. This is an important factor to ensure your turbine is effective and will generate the maximum amount of energy possible.

When initially learning about how windpower works it may seem a complicated and daunting process. But when the systems are broken down and each components purpose is understood, generating your own home windpower isn't at all complicated.

The majority of the materials and components needed to construct your own wind turbine are readily available and affordable. Suppliers and industries are now realizing the increasing demand for home renewable energy solutions and are scrambling to supply products and information to enable more people to do so.