Modern Wind Power

While wind power was harnessed widely across the North American plains to pump water on farms and ranches, scientists and engineers were slow to apply this technology to the generation of electricity. The towering exception to this trend was Charles Brush, who developed one of the most remarkable innovations in the history of wind technology. Brush was a wealthy entrepreneur and inventor who designed a massive, wind-powered electric generator for his home in Cleveland, Ohio. Built in 1887/88, the so-called “Brush Dynamo” was massive—over 18 m (nearly 60 ft.) tall, weighing over 36,000 kg (close to 80,000 lb.), and with 144 blades with a total surface area of 167 sq m (1,800 sq. ft.). An ingenious system of gears maximized the dynamo’s potential to produce electricity; one rotation of the blades was converted into fifty revolutions of the electric generator. To store this electric energy, Brush installed a huge bank of batteries in his home. The “Brush Dynamo” provided the inventor with electricity in his home for twenty years, at a time when home electricity was a novelty for the overwhelming majority of Americans.

Impressive as it was, the “Brush Dynamo” did not provide a useful model for mass production. While it provided electricity for Brush’s home, it was also massive and required an extremely expensive system of batteries to store the energy. Thus, while there were some sporadic efforts to harness wind power for electricity in North America prior to the First World War, initiative in the development of such technology shifted across the ocean to Europe, where scientists in Great Britain, Germany and especially Denmark led the way. Danish inventor Poul La Cour made an important breakthrough in the 1890s, incorporating aerodynamic design principles into the rotor and blades of his experimental windmills. This allowed for much faster rotation and greater potential for power generation. The development of airplane technology during the First World War added further insight into aerodynamics, and by the 1920s, wind-powered generators had the capacity to generate substantial amounts of electricity. Coupled with growing public demand for electricity, wind power seemed poised to become a major factor in world energy production.

The problem, however, remained cost. Despite refinements to the technology, by the end of the Second World War, it still cost substantially more to generate electricity from wind than from fossil fuels. What sustained and eventually boosted research and development of wind energy production was concern over energy security and supply. The 1973 Oil Crisis, for example, caused a major spike in world oil prices, leading the United States and other countries to invest resources in the growth and development of wind power; this pattern

repeated itself after the Gulf War of 1991. More recently, concerns over the exhaustion of non-renewable resources, coupled with awareness of the environmental impact of burning fossil fuels, have brought the advantages of wind power into clear view. Though continuing to grow in significance, the full potential of wind power as a source of electricity has yet to be fully realized—less than 4% of the world’s electricity is generated by wind power.