The History of Wind Farms

I think the cost of energy will come down when we make this transition to renewable energy.

— Al Gore

Wind Turbines seem like such a modern and technological way of generating power, but what many people do not know is that the first electricity producing wind turbine was actually developed and built in 1887. Professor James Blyth of Anderson’s College, Glasgow, built a ten metre high, fully working wind turbine using nothing but wood and cloth. Professor Blyth used his innovative design to power his house, making his house the first in the world to be powered by wind powered electricity

1904 and the Society of Wind Electricians held the first course on wind electricity. Fast forward to 1908 and there are no less than 72 electricity producing wind turbines spread across Denmark, and by 1927 Joe and Marcellus Jacobs started “Jacobs Wind” in Minnesota, the first company to specialise in wind powered electricity, this is when wind farming really began to catch wind

The year is 1975 and the first US wind farm is up and running, generating enough power for up to 4,149 homes, while NASA start a wind turbine development program, incorporating technology that is used to this very day on the wind farms. Three years later and the first multi-megawatt wind turbine is produced, truly pioneering the technology into the modern day wind turbines we are familiar with, it was so effective that it is still up and running today

By 1984 there are 15 wind farms across the US, double the amount that was there the year before, and by 1998 the global power capacity reached 10,200 Megawatts, as the industry grown and grown, much like a snowball the power of the technology and speed in which we were producing and manufacturing it was growing exponentially, growing so much that by 2002 the Global Wind Power had grown to 31,100 Megawatts.

2007 and the UK draws its plans to have every home powered by wind turbines by 2020, an amazing statistic considering it was only in 2003 that the first UK off shore wind farm was built in North Wales. It made big strides towards that goal in 2013, when the London Array was built, the worlds largest off shore wind farm.

As you can see wind farms have a rich and long history, starting right here in Britain and perfected across the seas, a truly global effort for a truly global improvement.