History of wind power

History of wind power

<a href="/en/Wind_power" title="Wind power" class="wl">Wind power</a> has been used as long as humans have put <a href="/en/Sailing_ships" title="Sailing ships" class="mw-redirect wl">sails</a> into the wind. For more than two millennia <a href="/en/Windmill" title="Windmill" class="wl">wind-powered machines</a> have ground grain and pumped water. Wind power was widely available and not confined to the banks of fast-flowing streams, or later, requiring sources of fuel. Wind-powered pumps drained the <a href="/en/Polder#Polders_and_the_Netherlands" title="Polder" class="wl">polders of the Netherlands</a>, and in arid regions such as the <a href="/en/American_mid-west" title="American mid-west" class="mw-redirect wl">American mid-west</a> or the <a href="/en/Australian_outback" title="Australian outback" class="mw-redirect wl">Australian outback</a>, <a href="/en/Wind_pump" title="Wind pump" class="mw-redirect wl">wind pumps</a> provided water for livestock and steam engines.

<div class="shortdescription nomobile noexcerpt noprint searchaux" style="display:none" about="#mwt1">Aspect of history</div>

<figure class="mw-default-size wiki-thumb"><a href="/en/File:Wind_turbine_1888_Charles_Brush.jpg" class="mw-file-description image media-thumb" data-hash="File:Wind_turbine_1888_Charles_Brush.jpg"><img loading="lazy" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/55/Wind_turbine_1888_Charles_Brush.jpg/220px-Wind_turbine_1888_Charles_Brush.jpg" decoding="async" data-file-width="714" data-file-height="739" data-file-type="bitmap" height="228" width="220" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/55/Wind_turbine_1888_Charles_Brush.jpg/330px-Wind_turbine_1888_Charles_Brush.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/55/Wind_turbine_1888_Charles_Brush.jpg/440px-Wind_turbine_1888_Charles_Brush.jpg 2x" alt="Wind_turbine_1888_Charles_Brush.jpg"></a><figcaption> <a href="/en/Charles_F._Brush" title="Charles F. Brush" class="wl">Charles Brush's</a> windmill of 1888, used for generating electricity.</figcaption></figure>

With the development of electric power, wind power found new applications in lighting buildings remote from centrally-generated power. Throughout the 20th century parallel paths developed small wind plants suitable for farms or residences, and larger utility-scale wind generators that could be connected to electricity grids for remote use of power. Today wind-powered generators operate in every size range between tiny plants for battery charging at isolated residences, up to near-gigawatt sized <a href="/en/List_of_offshore_wind_farms" title="List of offshore wind farms" class="wl">offshore wind farms</a> that provide electricity to national electrical networks.

By 2021 wind energy produced 4872 terawatts-hour, 2.8% of the total <a href="/en/Primary_energy" title="Primary energy" class="wl">primary energy</a> production<a href="#cite_note-1" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 1;">[1]</a> and 6.6% of the total electricity production.<a href="#cite_note-2" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 2;">[2]</a>

Wind power has been used as long as humans have put sails into the wind. For more than two millennia wind-powered machines have ground grain and pumped water. Wind power was widely available and not confined to the banks of fast-flowing streams, or later, requiring sources of fuel. Wind-powered pumps drained the polders of the Netherlands, and in arid regions such as the American mid-west or the Australian outback, wind pumps provided water for livestock and steam engines. With the development of electric power, wind power found new applications in lighting buildings remote from centrally-generated power. Throughout the 20th century parallel paths developed small wind plants suitable for farms or residences, and larger utility-scale wind generators that could be connected to electricity grids for remote use of power. Today wind-powered generators operate in every size range between tiny plants for battery charging at isolated residences, up to near-gigawatt sized offshore wind farms that provide electricity to national electrical networks. By 2021 wind energy produced 4872 terawatts-hour, 2.8% of the total primary energy production 