How wind energy works When wind blows past a turbine, the blades capture the energy and rotate. This rotation triggers an internal shaft to spin, which is connected to a gearbox increasing the speed of rotation, which is connect to a generator that ultimately produces electricity.
There are lots of places that use wind energy. But, wind energy has a couple of problems: First is storage. Unless you use the wind to charge a large battery or something like that, the energy is only available when the wind is blowing. Second is infrastructure. Wind turbines take up a lot of space and you need to have them positioned in a place that gets sustained strong winds. Third is environmental concerns, from the noise they make, to the sight of hundreds of windmills on a hillside, to the threat to birds that unknowingly fly into the turbine blades.
The impact of wind turbines on wildlife, most notably on birds and bats, has been widely document and studied. A recent National Wind Coordinating Committee (NWCC) review of peer-reviewed research found evidence of bird and bat deaths from collisions with wind turbines and due to changes in air pressure caused by the spinning turbines, as well as from habitat disruption. The NWCC concluded that these impacts are relatively low and do not pose a threat to species populations [5].