Glossary of Wind Energy Terms

By Paul Gipe and Bill Canter

The publisher of Windpower Monthly and WindStats Newsletter, Forlaget Vistoft, has published 1997 Glossary of Wind Energy Terms. The 100 page paperback by Paul Gipe and Bill Canter is the most comprehensive English language glossary of wind energy terms available from an independent source.

The glossary is an ideal desk-top reference for those new to the wind industry and provides entertaining reading for those who think they know all there is to know about wind energy.

From HAWT to VAWT and from Anemometer to Zephyr, the glossary offers a sometimes irreverent description of the words that make up the modern wind industry and translates wind energy speak for both the uninitiated and the professional. Unlike most technical dictionaries that simply define terms, the glossary places the meaning of the term within its wind energy context. For example, consider the term AWT for Advanced Wind Turbine that is bandied about in the United States. What does it really mean? Is it merely a marketing sleight of hand? And on occasion the glossary deflates the bombastic as in

Wind turbine generator: “Jargon to describe a wind turbine driving a generator. Often used by attorneys and brokers in California to impart a sense of technical sophistication.”

With the 1997 Glossary of Wind Energy Terms anyone can answer the following questions.

  • Where are the “Aeolian Islands”?
  • Just what is an “Articulating Straight-Bladed Vertical Axis Wind Turbine?
  • What are “cuffs”?
  • Who was Johannes Juul?
  • Does “mains” mean anything to a Yankee?
  • Is “NIABY” related to “NIMBY”?
  • What is “specific yield” or “specific tower head mass”?
  • What does “Wing” in Danglish mean?
  • Where is the oldest wind power plant?
  • Who was “Don Quixote” and what were his “giants”?
  • Should you hide from a “tornado vortex” or try to catch a “TARP”?
  • What does “visual uniformity” have to do with wind energy?
  • What is a “WIMP” in Riverside County?

These are just a few of the more than 900 terms defined by the editors of WindStats Newsletter.

1997 Glossary of Wind Energy Terms,
by Paul Gipe and Bill Canter
1997, ISBN 87-87734-43-5, 100 pages
approximately 8.25-inch by 5.75-inch paperback, 275 DKK (US$35)
Forlaget Vistoft, Havvej 32, Vrinners Hoved, DK8420 Knebel, Denmark
phone: +45 86 36 58 11; fax: +45 86 36 56 26