How Wind Turbines Have Evolved: From the First to the Biggest
The journey of wind turbines has been very interesting. Let’s take a read and find out how the
journey of using wind for power has emerged from being the 1st to the biggest how we got here and what all has gone into is a journey for the modern-day turbines to be operating with this grace. This journey basically covers how – In the early years when windmills were used to grind floor through the modern-day turbines standing tall with hundred metres of height providing electricity to homes.
The Early Years
All of us humans have been harnessing the power of wind for over 2000 years. This is not
yesterday‘s story; it all began early back in the first century. A mathematician, Heron of
Alexandria, inventor, and engineer – created something he called the windwheel. He first used
this windwheel to power a pipe organ, making “flute-like” noises. The Evidence of wind power,
shockingly, then vanishes until the 7th or 8th century AD, when we find windmills being used to grind flour and pump water in Iran. The next major development in the story of wind turbines was the discovery of electricity in the 1700s, even though it took at least another 100 years before the right mind came along. Enter this person, James Blyth, the world’s first wind power engineer. Blyth built the very first wind turbine in Scotland in July 1887. His 10 m high,
the cloth-sailed wind turbine was installed in the garden of his cottage at Marykirk in Kincardineshire and was first used to power the lighting in the cottage, making it the first house in the world to have its electricity supplied by wind power. Blyth offered surplus electricity to the people of Marykirk for lighting the main street, however, they turned down the offer as they funnily thought electricity was “the work of the devil.”
Hot on Blyth’s heels, American Charles Brush had got to work on building a first of its kind
electricity-generating wind turbine in 1888 in Cleveland, Ohio. The turbine’s diameter was long
17 meters (50 feet), it had 144 rotor blades made of cedarwood, and it generated about 12
kilowatts (kW) of power.
Next, a Danish man, Poul la Cour, enters the story. He was an inventor, scientist,
mcenturyeteorologist AND a teacher, la Cour was a major force in the development of what we now recognize as modern wind turbines. He is the hero of Wind Turbines. It was la Cour who realized that turbines with fewer blades are more efficient, and also that regulators could be used to provide a steady supply of energy.
Fast forward to the 20th Century individuals and companies around the world developed the
technology to a utility-scale level.
The pace of development has been accelerating and bouncing since the 1970s, thanks to a
combination of material science, engineering, and government incentives. The first wind farms were built, providing electricity to thousands of homes around that time.
