French wind historien Etienne Rogier has published an article on French post war wind turbines in the latest issue of the house organ for the Fédération des Moulins de France.
History of Wind Power
We feature full sized wind pumps, steam engines and a unique scoop wheel along with a collection of photographs, models of various mills which all depict the evolution of the drainage of the Broads.
Someone sent me a link to a YouTube video titled Abandoned Vertical Axis Windmill In The Magdalen Islands.
Renewable energy and electric vehicle fan Bob Tregilus was out and about in rural Nevada when he came across an odd wind turbine powering a well pump in the Reese River Valley. So he sent along his photos of a rebuilt USW 56-100s in the wild.
Located on the arid and windswept plains of northeastern Iran, 30 miles from the Afghan border, the small village of Nashtifan is keeping ancient traditions alive amid the winds of change. The town is home to some of the earliest windmills in the world, and the structures are still in use today.
Hans-Detlef Feddersen sent me a copy of a little picture book celebrating the 25th anniversary of Bürger-Windpark Lübke-Koog. He included a DVD video of interviews with the founders of the community-owned wind farm, the first of its kind in Germany and model for the thousands of projects to come.
Benny Christensen knows his windmills. An early anti-nuclear activist and proponent of 100% renewable energy—a photo of him appears in Steven Borish’s Land of the Living—Christensen has now turned his attention to documenting the country’s long history of working with the wind.
Yes, I’ve written about this subject once before, Everything You Need to Know about Wind Energy Was Written in 1957!, but I am moving the date back thirty years in the light of more research. The more I learn about wind energy, the more I realize how little I know.
Largely forgotten today, Georges Jean Marie Darrieus was one of France’s great engineers. While he is mostly known in the English-speaking world for his patent on vertical-axis wind turbines (VAWTs), he was a prolific inventor in a number of fields from ballistics to turbo-alternators.
It is no wonder that a modern wind turbine looks so beautiful.
