What is a wind powered turbine? Wind powered turbines have since the early days of wind turbines that were used to pump water, and for grinding. They were once known as windmills. Nowadays, modern wind turbines are used to generate electricity. A little has change with this machine. It still uses the same concept of using the winds energy to propel the blades and transforming wind energy to mechanical energy. This form of energy is converted into a much more useful form – electricity.