wind farm

See also: windfarm

English

WOTD – 22 April 2022

Alternative forms

Etymology

From wind +‎ farm,[1] from the idea that the wind turbines are “farming” the wind to produce electricity.

Pronunciation

Noun

wind farm (plural wind farms)

  1. A collection of wind turbines, especially a large-scale array, used to generate electricity.
    Synonyms: wind park, wind power plant, wind power station
    • 1978, Wind Energy Study (Pacific Northwest Region): Final Report, page 204:
      Then roughly 176 wind generators of 1.8 megawatts each would be located at each wind farm affecting an area of 15 × 176 or 2640 acres (4.1 sq mi) but directly using only about 176 acres (0.3 sq mi).
    • 2019 December 10, “Stormy weather blows in new wind power record”, in Chris Evans, editor, The Daily Telegraph, London: Telegraph Media Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 2:
      The windy weather last weekend set a new renewable power record and resulted in some households being paid to charge their electric cars to help balance the grid. Wind farms in Britain generated more than 16 gigawatts of power for the first time on Sunday evening.
    • 2025 June 7, The Australian Weekend Magazine, Australia, page 31, column 3:
      "If you measure behind a wind turbine, the wind is blowing less hard," say Remco Verzijlbergh from Dutch weather service Whiffle. Geography means that this phenomenon, known as wind shadow, benefits Belgian wind farms in the North Sea.

Alternative forms

Synonyms

Translations

References

  1. ^ wind farm, n.” under wind, n.1”, in OED Online , Oxford: Oxford University Press, March 2022; wind farm, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading