Wind Turbines--Brief History | How Wind Turbines Work | Advantages-Disadvantages | Education |
Wind-driven mills are of ancient origin. Simple windmills may have been used in Persia (now Iran) as early as the 7th century AD. They were used for irrigation and milling grain. The wheel bearing the wind sails of the earliest windmills was horizontal and supported by a vertical shaft. These machines were relatively inefficient. Nevertheless, this type of windmill spread to China and throughout the Middle East.
Wind turbine technology R&D (Research and Development) 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 transmission and distribution lines — in the United States and Europe.
Windmills used for salt extraction in ancient Egypt and Sicily |
Wind Turbines--Brief History | How Wind Turbines Work | Advantages-Disadvantages | Education |