Wind power development: A historical review

Abstract

Wind power only received occasional attention since the introduction of electricity until the 1970s, when a revived interest in alternative energy sources spurred the development thread that led to today’s wind turbines. Although attention and financial support at the time were directed toward government-funded MW-scale wind turbines, the small models developed in the late 1970s for the Danish market were ultimately the way forward. The wind industry has since matured, as evidenced by the lower specific power and higher capacity factors of recent turbine models and the similarity between their power curve shapes. Moreover, this study highlights two historical accomplishments by Europeans that are sometimes incorrectly credited to Americans: the first wind turbine to generate electricity was built in 1883 by Austrian Josef Friedländer and the Danish Agricco (1919) became the first public grid-connected wind turbine.