Question: how do u improve wind turbines?. Are they not all the same.?

Imad Ouachan answered on 20 Jun 2019:

Good question!

Two main ways of improving wind turbines. Firstly the bigger the better a turbine is, so super long blades allows for more energy to be taken out the wind. Secondly we can make them taller so they have access to ‘better’ wind.

Now the problems with making them bigger and taller are that they get really heavy. Currently the longest blades are over 100 meters long so they are made out of a super strong a lightweight family of materials called composites. To be able to make them bigger we need to improve these materials to be able to handle the weight. Another issue is as the blades get bigger they spin faster meaning that anything that hits the blade can do alto of damage even rain! My work looks at trying to find a way of stopping impacts damaging turbines when they spin really fast allowing them to produce more energy.