Wind Turbine

What is Wind Turbine?

A machine that converts the kinetic energy of moving air into electrical energy, using blades shaped much like an aircraft wing to spin a generator. No design can ever capture more than about 59% of the wind's available energy — a theoretical ceiling called the Betz limit, set purely by the physics of extracting energy from a moving fluid.

The five clues

Engineerdle #27 described Wind Turbine with five clues, revealed one at a time from hardest to most direct. Each clue points at a different property of the concept.

1. 01A machine that runs the same basic energy conversion as a windmill, just electrified.
2. 02Its blades are shaped much like an aircraft wing, not a simple flat paddle.
3. 03No design, however good, could ever capture more than about 59% of the wind's energy.
4. 04That theoretical ceiling has a name, after the German physicist who calculated it.
5. 05A machine that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy via rotating blades and a generator.