Wind... Past and Present:
7,000 years of wind energy
The Present:
2010
Pennsylvania, a coal state, will generate at least 10% of its energy from wind
2001
Denmark now produces 20% of its power from wind and aims to generate 50% of its electricty from renewable energy (primarily wind) by 2030
By year end 2000, the top countries for wind power
Germany: 6,113 MW
USA: 2,554 MW
Denmark: 2,300 MW
Spain: 2,235 MW
India: 1,167 MW
All others: 2,931 MW
Worldwide: 17,300 MW
The Past
Early 1900s AD: US: small wind turbines used to charge batteries and power radios and other small appliances
1890 AD: Denmark: first wind-driven electric generators, aka, the first true wind turbines
Uses over the next centuries included:
- grind grain
- pulverizing chalk, lime, oil seeds, snuff
- draining lowlands (Holland)
- pumping water for railroads, livestock, crops, and to run sawmills (especially in US)
1100 AD
France and England (and elsewhere): first horizontal axis windmills
600 AD
Persia: windmill building an established craft
200 BC
Persia: first evidence of windmill use
1600 BC
Babylon: plans to use windmills for irrigation
5000 BC
Egypt: wind carries boats along the Nile
SOURCE:
John Berger, Charging Ahead: The Business of Renewable Energy and What It Means for America, 1997
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