Following a trip to Denmark in 1980, I’ve stressed the theme that wind energy does indeed work, makes economic and environmental sense, and is here to stay. Even then Denmark was a model of how successful wind energy could become–when given the opportunity. In North America at the time, there were few wind turbines and only a few of those operated well. Most simply didn’t work. My slogan was as much a statement of what could be as it was a statement of fact. Today, wind turbines are commonplace throughout the world and “wind works”, once a bold statement, now elicits a “What? Of course it does. Everyone knows that.” And that’s the way it should be.

You can learn more about me and my work with renewable energy by following the links on the left.

Note that I have been using the term wind works since 1981 after a discussion with Hans Meyer about appropriating the term. (I am still carrying a Cross pen that my family had engraved with the term Wind Works for my birthday in 1981.)

Meyer, one of the pioneers of wind energy in the United States, was the founder of Windworks, a wind turbine manufacturer in Mukwonago, Wisconsin in the 1970s. In the early 1980s Meyer changed the name of his company to Omnion Power Engineering, abandoning use of the term Windworks.

In 2003 I launched this web site with the domain name of wind-works.org, incorporating web pages that had been hosted previously by TU-Berlin. In 2011 I started moving my web site to a modern platform with the able assistance of Matthias Bank. This was a lengthy and time-consuming task. I owe Matthias a great deal of thanks for his patient and pro-bono assistance in a project that took far longer than either of us anticipated.

In late 2022 my web site crashed and was unavailable for several months. Soon after Matthias began moving the web site to WordPress, a modern platform. Matthias and I have been working to restore as many pages of the original site as possible. This has taken months, but by early summer 2023, the bulk of the new site is up and functioning as it should.

The term wind works is not copyrighted or otherwise registered as a trade name. Please note that I am in no way affiliated with the use of the term by the Sierra Club, the American Wind Energy Association, or specific wind companies. I do not support or endorse their use or their policies to which the term is applied.

Paul Gipe