What are proven wind turbines? As the history of wind power goes all the way back to 200 B.C and the they were simple wind mills built upon the horizontal axis principle I would say that they are proven.
The horizontal axis wind turbines are still the most common type of wind power generator. There is a generator and a central rotator handle at the head of the tower. These need to be positioned into the wind; otherwise they will not produce any power.
A wind vane is normally enough for this idea when we talk about small turbines, but when we turn to large turbines, there should be a servo motor together with a wind sensor helping the construction point into the right wind direction. The rotation of the blades is managed by a gearbox which extends the rotational speed of the blades when there is a need for that.
The turbine is normally pointed against the wind to cover up for the turbulence made by the tower. There are downwind machines that are built to fight the issue with turbulence. Those constructions often use an additional device to keep the windturbine in line with the wind. This is to avoid damages caused by extremely high winds.
