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50 free Wind Power trivia questions with answers — technology quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Wind now supplies more than 8% of the world's electricity, and the road from 9th-century Persian windmills to today's 26 MW offshore giants is full of surprises. This wind power trivia quiz covers the physics (why doubling wind speed gives eight times the power, what the Betz limit is, why blades are white), the pioneers (James Blyth's cloth-sailed turbine, Charles Brush's 144-blade monster in Cleveland, Poul la Cour, the Tvind school), and the modern industry of wind farms, capacity factors, curtailment and record-breaking projects like Hornsea. There are questions for beginners and for energy nerds alike, from 'how many blades?' to 'why do all turbines spin clockwise?'. Every answer is verified and cited to its reference page. If you enjoy this quiz, try our other energy, science and technology quizzes.
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Q 01Roughly what share of the world's electricity did wind supply in 2025?
Over 8%
That is around 2,700 TWh, and wind generation has nearly tripled since 2015.
Q 02By what factor does available wind power rise when wind speed doubles?
Eightfold
Power is proportional to the cube of wind speed, which is why windy sites matter so much.
Q 03How many blades do almost all large commercial wind turbines have?
Three
The standard design is a horizontal-axis machine with an upwind rotor on a tall tubular tower.
Q 04What is the housing on top of the tower that holds the generator called?
Nacelle
Turbines in a farm are usually spaced about seven rotor diameters apart.
Q 05How far apart are turbines typically spaced in a fully developed wind farm?
7 rotor diameters
They are linked by a medium-voltage collection system, often 34.5 kV, before a substation steps the voltage up.
Q 06Which was the world's largest offshore wind farm as of November 2021, at 1,218 MW?
Hornsea (UK)
Offshore turbines catch stronger, steadier winds but cost far more to build and maintain.
Q 07What is it called when a wind farm is forced to produce below its potential because the grid cannot take the power?
Curtailment
It prevents grid overload but leaves renewable generation untapped.
Q 08What is the typical range of capacity factors for wind installations?
35% to 44%
The capacity factor is actual annual output divided by what nameplate capacity would give running flat out all year.
Q 09Which statistical distribution closely mirrors observed wind speeds at many sites?
Weibull
Its shape factor is often close to 2, so the simpler Rayleigh distribution can stand in.
Q 10Which power source is described as complementary to wind because it peaks in summer and in high-pressure weather?
Solar
Wind tends to be stronger at night and in winter, so the two smooth each other's seasonal swings.
Q 11About how long is the energy payback time of a wind farm?
Around a year
The energy return on energy invested averages about 20-25 over a turbine's life.
Q 12How efficient are pumped-storage hydro systems used to bank wind energy?
About 75%
Conventional hydro pairs even better with wind: dams simply hold back water while the wind blows.
Q 13What did a 2021 Lazard study estimate as the cost of new onshore wind power?
$26 to $50 per MWh
New gas came in at $45-74 and offshore wind at about $83 per MWh.
Q 21In which US city did Charles F. Brush build his heavily engineered wind turbine in 1887-88?
Cleveland
Its 17 m rotor sat on an 18 m tower yet produced only 12 kW, enough for 100 light bulbs and some motors.
Q 22How many blades did Brush's slow-turning turbine have?
144
It ran until 1900, when Cleveland's central power stations made it redundant.
Q 23Which Danish scientist built a turbine in 1891 that made hydrogen by electrolysis to light a folk high school?
Poul la Cour
He invented the Kratostate regulator and by 1895 was lighting the village of Askov.
Q 14Up to what capacity counts as 'small-scale' wind power?
50 kW
Some New York rooftops have carried Gorlov helical turbines since 2009, mostly for green credentials.
Q 15Which German physicist showed in 1919 that a turbine can capture at most 59% of the wind's kinetic energy?
Albert Betz
The limit is 16/27; the best modern turbines reach 70-80% of it.
Q 16What fraction is the Betz coefficient?
16/27
Outgoing air must keep some kinetic energy, so full extraction is impossible.
Q 17In which region were the first practical windmills in use by the 9th century?
Sistan (Iran/Afghanistan)
These panemone windmills turned on vertical shafts with six to twelve reed-covered sails.
Q 18Which ancient engineer described a wind-driven wheel powering an organ?
Hero of Alexandria
It may have been a toy or a concept; the first practical mills came centuries later in Persia.
Q 19Who built the first wind turbine used to generate electricity, in Scotland in July 1887?
James Blyth
His 10 m cloth-sailed machine lit his holiday cottage at Marykirk, making it the first house powered by wind.
Q 20Why did the people of Marykirk refuse Blyth's offer of free electric street lighting?
They thought electricity was 'the work of the devil'
He later built a turbine to power the Montrose asylum and infirmary, but the idea did not catch on.
Q 24How many windmills did Denmark have by 1900?
About 2,500
Their combined peak power was about 30 MW, all for mechanical loads like pumps and mills.
Q 25Where was the world's first megawatt-size wind turbine connected to a grid in 1941?
Grandpa's Knob, Vermont
The 1.25 MW Smith-Putnam turbine ran 1,100 hours before a blade broke at a known weak spot left unreinforced by wartime shortages.
Q 26Which 1957 Danish machine established the three-bladed, upwind, stall-regulated layout used today?
The Gedser
Johannes Juul's 24 m machine ran until 1967.
Q 27Which event triggered the Danish and US push toward utility-scale wind generators?
The 1973 oil crisis
US installed capacity reached 25.4 GW by 2008 and 60 GW by 2012.
Q 28Who built the 2 MW Tvindkraft, the world's first multi-megawatt turbine, in 1978?
Teachers and students of a Danish school
The 'amateurs' were ridiculed before completion, but their three-blade, tubular-tower design still runs today.
Q 29Which rotation direction did blade maker Økær adopt in 1978, later the industry standard?
Clockwise
Økær switched direction in 1978 to stand apart from the Tvind collective, and its customers made it the standard for horizontal-axis turbines.
Q 30How many experimental turbines did the NASA programme put into operation from 1974?
13
They pioneered steel tube towers, variable-speed generators and composite blades; the MOD-5B of 1987 was the world's largest at 3.2 MW.