News & Articles on History of Wind Power
This page was prompted by a technical question about early electricity-generating wind turbines in the United States. The question followed a similar question about “who was the first” to interconnect a wind turbine with an electricity network. There is a lot of confusion internationally about both subjects.
The history of wind energy is a broad subject and many have written about it. I’ve pulled together a list of sources, books, links, and museums that I know about. This list is far from comprehensive. If anyone wants to add to this list or edit this list, please do so.
A number of the entries below are reviews I’ve written of books that include the history of wind energy. The original book can usually be reached from the review. Other news items are relevant to the history of wind turbine development.
Betz: Everything You Need to Know about Wind Turbines Was Written in 1927
By
Paul Gipe
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.
Darrieus and His Vertical-Axis Wind Turbines (VAWTs)
By
Paul Gipe
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.
Finding Inspiration in Nature for the Revolution We Need
By
Sarah Taylor, Windustrious Cleveland
It is no wonder that a modern wind turbine looks so beautiful.
75th Anniversary of Connecting the Smith-Putnam Wind Turbine to the Grid
By
Paul Gipe
On this date in 1941, the first commercial-scale wind turbine was connected to the electrical grid in the United States. It was a milestone in the development of wind energy. The giant Smith-Putnam turbine proved that a wind turbine could be used to generate commercially quantities of electricity in parallel with other forms of generation in North America.
Fluttering Flags, Can-can, & the Big Men of Wind Energy
By
Paul Gipe
No. That title isn’t click bate. Long ago, in a land far away, I had to give a speech on the future of wind energy. That’s not noteworthy; I do it all the time. What was noteworthy, though, was that I had to compete with can-can dancers. If this was fiction, no one would believe it.
Denmark’s Agricco: History’s First Interconnected Wind Turbine
By
Paul Gipe
In 1919 the utility installed a wind turbine at Buddinge and connected it to its lines—a first worldwide, a full two decades before the Smith-Putnam machine in Vermont was connected to the grid.
