Different types of wind turbines

The are basically two sets of types vertical axis wind turbines (VAWT) and horizontal axis wind turbines (HAWT). As the names suggest the VAWT rotate on a vertical axis and the HAWT rotate on a horizontal axis.

There is a good page on the comparison of these types of turbines at http://www.otherpower.com.


Courtesy of http://www.windturbine-analysis.com/ (Note: Site is no longer working)

The bottom line is that if you are planning to build your own wind turbine it is easiest to go for the traditional horizontal design with the blades facing the wind like a propeller. The vertical design turbine needs to be precision engineered to generate decent amounts of power.