A SHORT HISTORY OF WINDPOWER

7 Windpower History Facts to Know

Nic Sharpley, March 18, 2013 (Windpower Engineering and Development)

“…Wind is the natural movement of air, but many don’t know it is caused by the Earth’s surface being unevenly heated by the sun. Thank you solar energy! …Some of the first documented uses for wind energy sailed boats along the Nile River around 5,000 BC. China was using basic windmills for water pumping by 200 BC…Other early documented windmills were also designed for grain grinding before 900 AD in Persia. The vertical-axis windmills had a central shaft with vertical sails made of wood and reeds.

“Charles F. Brush was the first inventor to build a large-scale windpower turbine for electricity generation around 1888 (just 23 years after the civil war) in Cleveland, Ohio. Weighing 40 tons, it stood 60 ft. tall with a 56 ft. diameter. The multi-bladed rotor was able to power his mansion with 12kW that charged 12 batteries. The windmill was also the first to incorporate a step-up gearbox…”

“In 1931, Russia started developing a utility-scale 100-kW windpower generator. They say it produced about 200,000 kWh near the shore of the Caspian Sea…Windpower grew in popularity with the unstable fossil fuels market in the 1970s. This sparked a global interest in wind turbines for power generation. Thank you fossil fuels!...

“…The Baltic Sea marks the location of the first commercial offshore wind farm. Installed in 1991 about 2 km. off the coastline of Vindeby, Denmark, the 11-turbine wind farm has been in operation for more than 20 years setting the expectations for many offshore projects.”

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