A wind turbine has a plurality of blades mounted on a rotor, the rotor has a rotatable shaft with a drivewheel extending therefrom. A plurality of wheels are in continuous rotatable contact with the drivewheel and are connected to drive a plurality of generators to produce energy. A controller is connected to control the number of generators that are generating between zero and all of the generators based on the speed of the blades. A method of operating the wind turbine uses a controller to control the number of generators that are generating based on the speed of the rotor.