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Some of the most high tech wind power generators have completely forgone the traditional horizontal spinning blade design in favor of a vertically spinning wind turbine which could potentially generate a thousand more times power than a traditional windmill. The turbine design is common in hydro electric power generators as well as incredibly large diesel engines. Instead of having two to three blades that spin on a horizontal axis there are as many as a hundred separate blades, or vanes, set up vertically and rotating around the center of the platform.
Some of the more ambitious designs have completely removed the mechanical bearings and replaced them with magnetic levitation for a virtually friction free environment. The maglev aspect to the system does require a modest amount of power but the turbine can generate an incredible amount of power compared with mechanical designs.
Wind power generators are becoming the stuff of science fiction novels with floating and flying windmills that can capture the fastest winds high in the sky. These generators are tethered to the ground and can be raised or lowered for routine maintenance and cleaning. They are safer for birds because they can be raised to altitudes where bird will not fly. This type of windmill is still in research phase and the feasibility of these generators in combination with regular air traffic is largely unknown.
Luckily there is not a shortage on wind power ideas. There are co-axial multi-rotored horizontal axis turbines, counter rotating horizontal turbines, ducted rotor turbines, furling tail and twisting turbines, telescoping blades, Savonius vertical turbines and modified VAWTs, or vertical axis wind turbine. Many people have incredibly different ideas on how to harness this power, but most people don't even realize where wind comes from.
The simple answer is that wind is created from differences in heat on the earths crust. So basically wind power is an off-shoot of solar power, but the land is absorbing heat and heating the air around it. Hot air creates higher pressure than cold air so this hot air will naturally try to balance it self out with some cold air by blowing into a lower pressure. Since most of the heat generated by the sun happens closer to the equator there is a natural flow of air from the equator to the poles and back again in a current known as the jet stream.
So even in the end, wind power generators are simple solar power generators that are one step removed. Although it is still harnessing the power of the sun, it is not the same as using solar panels, but it is also not any less efficient either. The two systems, wind and solar, actually complement each other very well and when used together they can reliably produce electricity all year long.
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