The Persians were some of the first people to harness the power of the wind to do work when they began building early forms of windmills in Iran and Afghanistan in around the 7th Century AD. These early windmills consisted of sails radiating from a vertical axis within a building, with two large openings for the inlet and outlet of wind, diametrically opposite each other. The mills were used to directly drive single pairs of millstones without the use of gears. They were one of the first civilizations that were able to directly replace human beings with machines as a main source of power.
Windmills would become increasingly widespread throughout Europe during the Middle Ages, and remained in common use well into the 19th Century. The development of steam power during the industrial revolution would lead to the eventual decline of windmills.
The first ‘proper’ wind turbine as in a windmill designed to generate electricity, was built in Scotland in 1887 by Professor James Blyth to power the lighting in his holiday cottage!
The first commercial wind farm was established in 1980 and supplied 0.6 MW, produced by 20 wind turbines rated at 30 Kw each, installed Crotched Mountain in southern New Hampshire.
In the 20th and 21st centuries the Wind Turbine has become an important power source to supplement the national grid. An average onshore wind turbine with a capacity of 2.5–3 MW can produce more than 6 million kWh in a year – enough to supply 1,500 average homes with electricity. An average offshore wind turbine of 3.6 MW can power more than 3,312 average homes.
Perhaps with today’s energy crisis we should also start installing more home turbines?
Hope you have a good month
All the best
Mike
Quotations:
“Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.”- Albert Einstein
“Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs” – Henry Ford
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