This page takes a brief look at the history of wind energy by way of providing some background information on the wind turbines of today. The history of wind energy is certainly long, beginning thousands of years ago. It is estimated that in as early as 5000 B.C. sail boats were in use on the Nile as boatmen realised the power of the wind, albeit without the technical understanding of today.
The history of wind energy then continues with the first windmills, believed to have been in Persia (Iran) and then China around 200 B.C. Initially used for water pumping then grain grinding this is thought to be the approximate time of the development of vertical-axis windmills.
The history of wind energy in Europe begins much later in terms of windmills after the technology had spread across the world from the Far East. It is estimated that the concepts arrived via the Middle East around 1300 A.D. with windmills again used for grain grinding and water pumping. This was especially popular in the Netherlands, where the windmill was adapted for use in draining lakes and marshes.
Industrialisation led to a change in the path of the history of wind energy, with the development of steam engines replacing water pumping windmills. This caused an initial decline but industrialisation eventually led to the development of larger windmills to be used to generate electricity. The first large windmill used in this way was in 1888 in the USA and by the 1920s smaller (1-3KW) turbines were quite common in rural Midwestern America.
The Energy Crisis in the 1970s aroused renewed interest in wind energy, which has always fluctuated depending on the cost of oil. Today this interest is growing steadily, also in relation to fuel prices, but also due to environmental concerns over the use of fossil fuels.
