How Wind Power Generator Gearing Works

Wind turbines help to provide renewable energy for homeowners.

Wind turbines can help to offset the cost of electricity for the homeowner who lives in an area with high sustained wind speeds. Some wind turbine systems use multiple gears to help increase the rotations per minute (RPM) of a turbine's generator.

Combined Gears

Some wind turbines have generators that require a high level of RPMs. If the wind speed coming into contact with the windmill's blades cannot provide enough energy to obtain the require RPMs, the blades can be attached to a larger gear with more teeth than the generator's original gearing. This change will result in higher RPMs for the smaller gear as it is spun by the larger gear.

Electricity Production

As a generator's crank is turned by the turbine's blades, a charge is produced by a coil of wire moving between two magnets, which generate a magnetic field. Electricity is then sent to the deep-cycle batteries for storage and use by the homeowner.

Physics

Gear ratios are explained by physics. If a smaller gear is connected with a larger gear, applying force to the larger gear will allow the smaller gear to turn much faster than if the same force was applied to the smaller gear on its own. Oppositely, if the same setup was used, but force was applied to the smaller gear, the amount of torque produced by the system would increase due to the larger gear's size.

References

• Hyper Physics: How a Generator Works
• Robot Games: Gears

Resources

• Home Power: Car Alternator for Wind Turbine
• Alton Moore: Wind Turbine Overview