from masterresource
Robert Bradley Jr.
“The debate about baby industries is just a smokescreen. So-called babies never grow up. (Milton and Ross Friedman, Freedom of choice, 1979, p. 17. 49)
The idea of transitioning to a “new energy future” for wind, grid solar, and battery-powered cars and trucks has historically been a misguided one. All have a history of being non-competitive with or being replaced by fossil fuels. Energy density explains much of why the age of renewable energy gave way to the better world of coal, oil and gas in recent centuries.
This article is excerpted from Zachary Shahan's 2014 article “The History of Wind Turbines” for Renewable Energy World.
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1887: The first known wind turbine used to generate electricity was built in Scotland. The wind turbine was built by Professor James Bryce at Glasgow's Anderson College (now known as the University of Strathclyde). “Blyth's 10m high canvas wind turbine is installed in the garden of his holiday cottage in Marykirk, Kincardineshire, and is used to charge a battery developed by Frenchman Camille Alphonse Faure to power the lighting in the cottage. It became the first wind-powered house in the world. Bryce offered surplus electricity to the people of Marykirk to light their main street, however, they rejected the offer as they considered electricity “the work of the devil”. “
1888: The first known wind turbine used to generate electricity in the United States was built by inventor Charles Brush to power his Ohio mansion. (As shown in FIG.)
1891: Danish scientist Poul la Cour developed a power-generating wind turbine and later studied how to provide stable power from the wind turbine through the use of a regulator Kratostate.
1895: Poul la Cour transformed his windmill into a prototype power plant. It is then used to provide electricity for lighting in the village of Askov.
1903: Poul la Cour founded the Wind Electricians Association. He was also the first known person to discover that wind turbines with fewer blades that spin faster are more efficient than wind turbines with more blades that spin slower.
1904: The Wind Power Engineers Association held the first wind power course. (Pictured above are class participants.)
to 1908: There are 72 wind power systems in operation across Denmark. The power range of windmills is from 5 kW to 25 kW.
1927: Joe Jacobs and Marcellus Jacobs opened a “Jacobs Wind” factory in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They produce wind turbines for use on farms, which often don't have access to the grid. Wind turbines are often used to charge batteries and power lights. By 1957, Jacobs Wind had produced and sold approximately 30,000 wind turbines to customers in Africa and Antarctica.
1931: A vertical axis wind turbine design called the Darrieus wind turbine was patented by French aeronautical engineer Georges Jean Marie Darrieus. This type of wind turbine is still used today, but not as widely as horizontal axis wind turbines for more niche applications (such as on ships).
1931: Yalta built horizontal axis wind turbines similar to those we use today. The wind turbine had a capacity of 100 kilowatts, a tower height of 32 meters and a load factor of 32% (actually similar to today's wind turbines).
1941: The first megawatt-scale wind turbine has been connected to the local distribution grid. 1.25 MW Smith-Putnam wind turbine installed in Castletown, Vermont. Its blades are 75 feet long.
1957: Johannes Juul, a former student of Poul la Cour, built a 24 meter diameter horizontal axis wind turbine with 3 blades, a design very similar to wind turbines still in use today. The wind turbine had a capacity of 200 kilowatts and featured a new invention – the emergency pneumatic tip break, a technology still used in wind turbines today. #repage#
1975: The first wind farm in the United States has come online, providing enough power for up to 4,149 homes. That same year, NASA launched a program to develop utility-scale wind turbines.
1978: The world's first multi-megawatt wind turbine was built by teachers and students of Tvind School. The 2-MW wind turbine “pioneered many of the technologies used in modern wind turbines and enabled Vestas, Siemens and others to obtain the parts they needed. Not least of all was the new model, which was developed with the help of German aerospace experts Wing structure (The wind turbine is still in operation today.)
1978: Danish wind turbine manufacturer Vestas produces its first wind turbine.
1978: The Public Utility Regulatory Policy Act (PURPA PL 95-617) requires utilities to interconnect renewable energy projects with the grid at an “avoidable cost” purchase price.
in 1980: Founded by wind energy developer Zond (acquired by Enron in 1997, Enron Wind Energy was sold to GE in 2002 and became GE Wind Energy.
in 1980: Wind turbine manufacturer Danregn Vindkraft is formed, spun out of a Danish irrigation systems manufacturer. Later it became Bonus Energy and then Siemens Wind Power.
in 1980: The world’s first wind farm (20 wind turbines) connected to the grid
1980s: Denmark begins site selection for offshore wind turbines.
1980s: Enertech begins construction of a grid-connectable 1.8 kW wind turbine. Commercial wind turbine rotors can have a diameter of up to 17 meters and a capacity of up to 75 kilowatts.
1981: The second wind farm in the United States was completed, and the total installed capacity of wind power in the United States reached approximately 10 MW.
1981: California has a tax credit for wind turbines that expires in 1986.
1984: There are 15 wind farms connected to the grid in the United States, nearly double the number from the previous year, providing enough power for as many as 146,000 homes.
1986: Vestas, which had previously focused on other types of machines (dating back to 1898), has now decided to focus 100% on the wind turbine market. It formed Vestas Wind Systems A/S and sold other business units. Vestas sold its 1,000th wind turbine in 1991 and went on the market in 1998.
year 1987: 3.2 MW wind turbine developed by NASA Wind Turbine Program.
1990: The Solar, Wind, Waste-to-Energy, and Geothermal Energy Production Incentives Act of 1990 was enacted to amend PURPA and eliminate size limits on renewable energy power plants that qualify for PURPA benefits.
1990: There are 46 wind farms connected to the grid in the United States, providing enough power for nearly 300,000 households.
year 1991: The world's first offshore wind farm is built in southern Denmark. It includes 11 wind turbines manufactured by Bonus Energy, each with a capacity of 450 kW.
year 1991: The UK's first onshore wind farm is being built in Cornwall. The wind farm consists of 10 wind farms, which together provide enough electricity for approximately 2,700 homes. #repage#
1992: The United States implements the Production Tax Credit (PTC) for wind power. PTC incentivizes electricity production rather than simply incentivizing installation (which can lead to efficiency and reliability issues). In the early years, wind power producers were paid 1.5 cents per kilowatt-hour of electricity produced during the first 10 years of operation.
the year 1995: Vestas produces the first offshore wind turbine.
2000: Global wind power installation capacity reaches 17,400 MW.
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