Out of masterresource
By Robert Bradley Jr.
“The infant industry argument is a red herring. So-called infants never grow up.” (Milton and Rose Friedman, Free to Choose, 1979, p. 49)
The idea of a transition to a “new energy future” is historically false when you consider wind power, solar power, and battery-powered cars and trucks. All of these energy sources have historically been uncompetitive with or displaced by fossil fuels. Energy density goes a long way toward explaining why the age of renewable energy has given way to a far better world of coal, oil, and natural gas over the past few centuries.
This comes from a 2014 article by Zachary Shahan for Renewable Energy World titled “History of Wind Turbines.”
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1887: The first known wind turbine to generate electricity was built in Scotland. The wind turbine was designed by Prof. James Blyth of Anderson's College, Glasgow (now Strathclyde University). “Blyth's 10m high wind turbine with fabric sails was set up in the garden of his holiday home in Marykirk, Kincardineshire, and was used to charge accumulators developed by Frenchman Camille Alphonse Faure to power the holiday home's lights. This made it the first house in the world to be powered by wind power. Blyth offered the residents of Marykirk the surplus power to light the main street, but they declined the offer, thinking that electricity was 'the work of the devil.'”
1888: The first known U.S. wind turbine for generating electricity was built by inventor Charles Brush to power his mansion in Ohio. (Pictured above.)
1891: The Danish scientist Poul la Cour develops a wind turbine to generate electricity and later discovers how to ensure a constant supply of energy from the wind turbine using a controller, a kratostat.
1895: Poul la Cour converts his windmill into a prototype power plant. This is then used to generate electricity for lighting the village of Askov.
1903: Poul la Cour founds the Society of Wind Electricians. He is also the first person to discover that wind turbines with fewer blades that rotate faster are more efficient than turbines with many blades that rotate slowly.
1904: The Society of Wind Electricians is holding its first course on wind electricity. (Course participants pictured above.)
Until 1908: There are 72 wind turbines in operation throughout Denmark to generate electricity. The wind turbines have an output of 5 to 25 kW.
1927: Joe Jacobs and Marcellus Jacobs open a “Jacobs Wind” factory in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They produce wind turbines for use on farms, as these often do not have access to the power grid. The wind turbines are usually used to charge batteries and power lights. By 1957, Jacobs Wind has produced and sold around 30,000 wind turbines, including to customers in Africa and Antarctica.
1931: A vertical axis wind turbine, called the Darrieus wind turbine, was patented by Georges Jean Marie Darrieus, a French aeronautical engineer. This type of turbine is still used today, but for niche applications such as on boats and not nearly as common as horizontal axis turbines.
1931: A horizontal-axis wind turbine similar to the current ones is being built in Yalta. The wind turbine will have a capacity of 100 kW, a 32-meter-high tower and a load factor of 32% (which is actually the same as what today's wind turbines achieve).
1941: The first megawatt-sized wind turbine is connected to a local power distribution grid. The Smith-Putnam 1.25 MW wind turbine is being built in Castletown, Vermont. It has 75-foot-long blades.
1957: Johannes Juul, a former student of Poul la Cour, builds a horizontal axis wind turbine with a diameter of 24 meters and 3 rotor blades, which is very similar in construction to the wind turbines still used today. The wind turbine has an output of 200 kW and uses a new invention, namely aerodynamic emergency brakes on the rotor blades, which are still used in wind turbines today. #rewpage#
1975: The first wind farm in the USA is put into operation and produces electricity for up to 4,149 homes. In the same year, NASA starts a program to develop large-scale wind turbines.
1978: The world's first multi-megawatt wind turbine is made by teachers and students at Tvind School. The 2-megawatt wind turbine “pioneered many technologies used in modern wind turbines and enabled Vestas, Siemens and others to get the parts they needed. Particularly important was the novel blade design with the help of German aviation specialists.” (This wind turbine is still in operation today.)
1978: The Danish wind turbine manufacturer Vestas produces its first wind turbine.
1978: The Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA PL 95-617) requires utilities to connect renewable energy projects to the electric grid at a purchase price that covers the “avoided costs.”
1980: The wind energy developer Zond is founded (purchased by Enron in 1997, Enron Wind is sold to GE in 2002 and becomes GE Wind Energy).
1980: The wind turbine manufacturer Danregn Vindkraft is founded, emerging from a Danish manufacturer of irrigation systems. It later becomes Bonus Energy and then Siemens Wind Power.
1980: The world's first wind farm (20 turbines) goes online
1980s: Denmark begins site selection for offshore wind turbines.
1980s: Enertech begins construction of grid-connectable 1.8 kW wind turbines. The rotors of commercial wind turbines reach a diameter of up to 17 meters and an output of 75 kilowatts.
1981: A second wind farm is being built in the USA. This brings the total installed wind power capacity in the USA to around 10 megawatts.
1981: California introduces tax breaks for wind turbines that expire in 1986.
1984: In the USA, 15 wind farms are connected to the grid, almost twice as many as last year, and produce enough electricity for up to 146,000 households.
1986: Vestas, which had previously focused on other types of machines (since 1898), decides to focus 100% on the wind turbine market. It establishes Vestas Wind Systems A/S and sells its other businesses. Vestas sells its 1,000th wind turbine in 1991 and goes public in 1998.
1987: A 3.2-megawatt wind turbine is being developed as part of the NASA wind turbine program.
1990: The Solar, Wind, Waste, and Geothermal Energy Production Incentive Act of 1990 was enacted to amend PURPA and remove size restrictions on renewable energy power plants eligible for PURPA benefits.
1990: There are 46 wind farms online in the US, providing enough electricity for nearly 300,000 homes.
1991: The world's first offshore wind farm is being built in southern Denmark. It comprises 11 wind turbines manufactured by Bonus Energy, each with an output of 450 kW.
1991: The UK's first onshore wind farm is being built in Cornwall. The wind farm comprises 10 wind farms that together produce enough electricity for around 2,700 homes. #rewpage#
1992: The United States introduces the Production Tax Credit (PTC) for wind energy. The PTC incentivizes electricity production, not just installation (which led to performance and reliability problems). In the early years, wind energy producers receive 1.5 cents per kWh for the electricity they generate during the first 10 years of operation.
1995: Vestas produces its first offshore wind turbine.
2000: Global wind power capacity reaches 17,400 megawatts.
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