Wind History Wind energy has been used since very early in history. In 200 B.C the Chinese were pumping water with simple windmills and the Persians were grinding grain. Some of the earliest known windmills were in Persia (Iran). These early windmills looked like large paddle wheels. Centuries later, the people of Holland improved the basic design of the windmill. They gave it propeller-type blades, still made with sails. Nineteenth-century settlers took the technology to America where windmills were used to pump water, and later to generate electricity. Industrialization led to the replacement of windmills by steam engines for pumping water. However large windmills were developed to generate electricity. The popularity of wind energy has fluctuated with fuel prices. When fuel prices decrease so does the demand for wind-generated energy; when fuel prices increase wind energy regains its popularity. The wind turbine technology R&D that followed the oil embargoes in the 1970s led to the introduction of new ways to convert energy into useful power. Today, wind energy is the world’s fastest-growing energy source.
The wind resource in the United States is vast. Using today’s technology, there is theoretically enough wind power flowing across the country to supply all of our electricity needs. North Dakota alone could supply over 40% of the nation’s electricity. Adequate winds for commercial power production are found at sites in 46 states. However, in the near term, only a small portion of that potential will likely be tapped.
Less than 1% of the nation’s electricity is currently supplied by wind power. Under an aggressive growth scenario, perhaps 6% of the nation’s electricity could be supplied by wind power by 2020. That would be about the same amount of electricity that hydroelectric power supplies today.
