WIND POWER
Since early recorded history, people have been harnessing the energy of the wind. Wind energy propelled boats along the Nile River as early as 5000 B.C. By 200 B.C., simple windmills in China were pumping water, while vertical-axis windmills with woven reed sails were grinding grain in Persia and the Middle East.
Early in the twentieth century, windmills were commonly used across the Great Plains to pump water and to generate electricity. Wind is a more efficient form of alternative energy because it blows 24-hours a day, not just during the sunlit hours. Unfortunately, installing a 50 to 100 foot tall tower in your backyard is usually frowned upon by neighbors and civic leaders.
New ways of using the energy of the wind eventually spread around the world. By the 11th century, people in the Middle East were using windmills extensively for food production; returning merchants and crusaders carried this idea back to Europe. The Dutch refined the windmill and adapted it for draining lakes and marshes in the Rhine River Delta. When settlers took this technology to the New World in the late 19th century, they began using windmills to pump water for farms and ranches, and later, to generate electricity for homes and industry.
Industrialization, first in Europe and later in America, led to a gradual decline in the use of windmills. The steam engine replaced European water-pumping windmills. In the 1930s, the Rural Electrification Administration's programs brought inexpensive electric power to most rural areas in the United States.
However, industrialization also sparked the development of larger windmills to generate electricity. Commonly called wind turbines, these machines appeared in Denmark as early as 1890. In the 1940s the largest wind turbine of the time began operating on a Vermont hilltop known as Grandpa's Knob. This turbine, rated at 1.25 megawatts in winds of about 30 mph, fed electric power to the local utility network for several months during World War II.
The popularity of using the energy in the wind has always fluctuated with the price of fossil fuels. When fuel prices fell after World War II, interest in wind turbines waned. But when the price of oil skyrocketed in the 1970s, so did worldwide interest in wind turbine generators.
The wind turbine technology R&D that followed the oil embargoes of the 1970s refined old ideas and introduced new ways of converting wind energy into useful power. Many of these approaches have been demonstrated in "wind farms" or wind power plants — groups of turbines that feed electricity into the utility grid — in the United States and Europe.
Today, the lessons learned from more than a decade of operating wind power plants, along with continuing R&D, have made wind-generated electricity very close in cost to the power from conventional utility generation in some locations. Wind energy is the world's fastest-growing energy source and will power industry, businesses and homes with clean, renewable electricity for many years to come. Several new technologies and products are now coming into the realm of availability and affordability. Recently, new, smaller verticle-axis turbine windmills have become available that mount directly on the roof of a home or business. Some of these may now be allowed by local governments for use within the city and county limits.
Wind Power Products
Windterra
ECO 1200 • Available in 1.2 kW, Design makes for quiet operation., VWAT (Vertical Axis Wind Turbine), Production suited for home use. (Download brochure)
Did you know? VAWTs are omni-directional (can instantaneously accept wind from any direction) as opposed to Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines (HAWTs) which have to constantly rotate so that they are facing the wind.
Southwest Windpower
Skystream 3.7 • Inverter built-in for easy installation, Modern blade design, Modern blade design, Beyond quiet whisper, Optional two-way remote digital display, Produces aprox 400kWhrs /month at 12mph, Monopole tower reduces cost and space requirements. See how it works here. (Download brochure)
Whisper 100 • 900W at 28mph (12.5m/s), Battery Charging 12, 24, 36 & 48 V, For moderate to high wind 9 mph (4m/s) and above, Produces 100kWhrs/month at 12mph (5.4m/s). (Download brochure)
Whisper 200 • 1,000W at 26mph (11.6m/s), Battery Charging 12, 24, 36 & 48 V, Produces 158kWhrs/month at 12mph (5.4m/s), Maintenance Free + 5 Year Warranty. (Download brochure)
Whisper 500 • Battery Charging 24, 36 & 48 V, 3000W at 24mph (10.5m/s), Produces 538kWhrs/month at 12mph (5.4m/s), Maintenance Free + 5 Year Warranty. (Download brochure)
