How does an offshore wind farm work?
The diagram below is a simplified version of an offshore wind farm.
Piles (1) are driven into the seabed once a suitable place for the wind farm is found. Erosion protection, similar to sea defences, are placed at the base to prevent damage to the sea floor. The top of the foundation is painted a bright colour to make it visible to ships and has an access platform to allow maintenance teams to dock.
Once the turbine is assembled, sensors on the turbine detect the wind direction and turn the head, known as the nacelle , to face into the wind, so that the blades can collect the maximum amount of energy. The movement of the wind over the aerodynamically shaped blades
(2) makes them rotate around a horizontal hub, which is connected to a shaft inside the nacelle
(3). This shaft, via a gearbox, powers a generator to convert the energy into electricity. Subsea cables
(4) take the power to an offshore transformer
(5) which converts the electricity to a high voltage (33kV) before running it back 5 -10 miles to connect to the grid at a substation on land
Wind Power - Wind Energy http://en.86wind.com