News & Articles on Wind Energy
This is an archive of articles and news on both large and small wind turbines, wind energy & the environment, and links to topics on the history of wind energy.
I’ve been working with wind energy since 1976 and my professional experience in the subject runs the gamut from wind resource assessment to installing and testing small wind turbines. I continue to follow the industry and analyze its growth and increasing contribution to renewable electricity generation worldwide.
For newcomers to wind energy I’ve added pages from my previous books explaining terms used in the industry.
- 200 Term Multilingual Lexicon: The lexicon translates English terms into five different languages: Dansk, Deutsch, Español, Français, and Italiano.
- Glossary of Wind Energy Terminology: The glossary was written by Paul Gipe and Bill Canter in the late-1990s. I’ve added the glossary to my web site for both its historical content—many of the terms were in use during the 1980s and 1990s—and as a reference for the thousands of newcomers to the wind industry since it was first published.
Schachle Wind Turbine 1977 & the Heights of Hype
By
Paul Gipe
The annals of wind energy are filled with examples of arrogance, hubris, and hype about products that failed to deliver on their promoter’s promise. One long forgotten example is the Schachle wind turbine. However, unlike the Internet wonders that bedevil us today, the Schachle wind turbine was a real piece of hardware not merely electrons floating in the ether.
Power in the Wind 1932 Balaklava Wind Turbine Film
By
Paul Gipe
In 1932 British Pathé filmed a newsreel of the Soviet Union’s recently installed wind turbine at Balaklava near Yalta on …
Lassoing a Runaway Windmill
By
Paul Gipe
It was common knowledge on California wind farms in the 1980s that one way to stop the rotor from spinning out of control was to somehow get a rope tangled in the rotor. The rotor would then wind up the rope, wrapping it tightly around the main shaft, slowing the rotor if not stopping it. To get the rope into the rotor, it was necessary to shoot an arrow towards the rotor with a line attached. If successful, the spinning rotor would do the rest.
Wind: An Energy Alternative–Video Blast from the Past
By
Paul Gipe
This is an update of an article I first posted in 10 November 2018. It follows on a series of articles about historical films of wind turbines. In 1980 the Department of Energy published a short film titled Wind: An Energy Alternative. The 12-minute film was produced by the Solar Energy Research Institute (SERI) probably in 1979.
New Videos on Historic Wind Turbines Posted
By
Paul Gipe
I’ve updated a post from May 19, 2022 of three videos of historic wind turbines in operation: Ulrich Hütter’s StGW-34, …
PG&E Boeing Mod-2 Wind Turbine Removal Mark Haller
By
Paul Gipe
I had this video digitized for its historical content from a video cassette provided by Mark Haller from his collection …
