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Why do wind power plants have just 3 blades? It seems that adding more blades would increase the area that interacts with the wind and gather more energy.

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(Image from Wikipedia.)

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  • $\begingroup$ Short answer by (same) Wikipedia: 3-bladed turbines have high tip speeds of over 320 km/h (200 mph), high efficiency, and low torque ripple, which contribute to good reliability $\endgroup$
    – Waffle's Crazy Peanut
    May 13, 2013 at 12:49
  • $\begingroup$ I'm pretty sure I've seen 2-bladed ones as well. $\endgroup$
    – Řídící
    May 13, 2013 at 13:07
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    $\begingroup$ Also see Wikipedia: Blade count. $\endgroup$
    – Řídící
    May 13, 2013 at 13:09

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It is just easier, i.e. less expensive, to build and maintain them that way. There exist alternative designs that are more efficient but also more difficult (= more expensive) to build, put up and maintain. You can check those out via this link.

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    $\begingroup$ why down-vote? so this isn't correct? $\endgroup$
    – seb
    May 13, 2013 at 14:57

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