How does Windmills Work?

Everyone has seen all the moves towards clean energy in the past few years. Things like solar and wind energy have become the new standard for clean energy as they don’t seem to have the bi-product problems of things such as electricity. While electric engines burn more cleanly than your standard combustion engine runs off gasoline or petrol they still require an input system that is typically one built out of a dirty fuel such as coal. Windmills can produce and store more energy than solar cells and tend to be more efficient overall.

When you see windmills towering over the town below, it is easy to wonder how they know which way to face in order to catch the wind properly. One of the key components in the built in pitch control system. This uses hydraulics in order to adjust the way the blades face and even change the position of the head. This allows the windmill to turn more rapidly creating more stored energy as it travels down the base of the system.

The center of the windmill is wired to capture all the energy created by the spinning top. It then travels down the wires to the base of the windmill where a battery sits to capture the energy. Other wires go to the general power source. This means you can both draw power immediately and store it for future use. This gives you more freedom with this version of clean energy. While you can store solar power it does not have the same conversion rate and you lose much of the energy in the storage process.

As for the direction of the windmills, that is up to the person who sets up the farm. Some windmills can use the pitch control system to move the entire direction of the head, while other windmills are stationary. The stationary ones can still move the blades to better catch the wind but the windmill itself always faces the exact same direction. For those close to the water, this is often a great choice as the wind tends to only come from one way.