A SHORT HISTORY OF WIND

A 5,000 year Look at Wind Energy; History of Harnessing Wind as Renewable Energy
Patrice Campbell, January 16, 2010 (Suite 101)

"From early Egyptions sailing the Nile to Persian windmills to pump water and grind grain, humans have been harnessing wind energy for over 5,000 years.

"Sails and propeller type blades improved the windmill in the 1300's as central European countries began to use wind energy. The pin wheel like horizontal-axis windmills of Holland are still easily recognizable and famous world wide…

Remnant of a bygone era. (click to enlarge)

"The early American colonists relied heavily on wind power to pump water…grind their grain…[and] cut lumber at sawmills. In the 1850's, the Halladay Windmill was developed specifically for the American West by Daniel Halladay and John Burnham…Thomas O. Perry…[introduced] gears to reduce the blade rotation…[allowing windmills to work] in lighter winds…By the 1880's over six million windmills spotted America…with steel blades… built by homesteaders, purchased from travelling salesmen or purchased through catalogs…

"Electricity from wind power via a windmill was first produced in 1888 by Charles F. Brush. The Brush Electric Company…was later bought by General Electric...[T]he Chicago World's Fair in 1893…boasted 15 windmill companies…The Smith-Putnam wind turbine, with blade diameters of 175 feet supplied power to the community of Rutland, VT during World War II…The 1950's saw most of the US windmill companies shut down…until the oil crisis of 1973…

click to enlarge

"As alternative energy sources were sought to combat the high oil prices…NASA, funded by the US Department of Energy [DOE] and the National Science Foundation, developed experimental wind turbines at the Lewis Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio…PURPA, the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978, encouraged using renewable energy. In 1980, The Crude Oil Windfall Profits Tax Act made using renewable energy more economically feasible by rewarding businesses using wind power with Federal tax credits of up to 25%.

"…California… took measures to lock into rates using a contract system…[and wind and other New Energies] became more cost competitive…Government incentives and a growing market for electricity during the 1980's…[drove growth]…[T]urbines were inefficient…[but] wind capacity in California exceeded 1,000 megawatts in 1985….More than half of the world's capacity, 2,000 megawatts, was installed in California by 1990 despite the decline of funding for wind power research…The Wind Energy Program of the DOE lowered technology costs in 1995, and the advanced turbine program enabled energy costs of 5 cents/kilowatt hour…By 2004 these costs were down to 3 to 4.5 cents per kilowatt hour…Stronger incentives…were provided by the Energy Policy Act of 2005. By 2006 the DOE had a budget of about $500,000,000…ten times the amount budgeted in 1978."