A wind turbine is a rotating machine that converts knetic energy from wind movement into mechanical energy.
Wind machines were used in Persia as early as 200 B.C. This type of machine was introduced into the Roman Empire by 250 A.D. However, the first practical windmillswere built in Sistan, Iran, from the 7th century. These were vertical axle windmills, which had long vertical driveshafts with rectangle shaped blades. Made of six to twelve sails covered in reed matting or cloth material, these windmills were used to grind corn and draw up water, and were used in the gristmilling and sugarcane industries.
By the 14th century, Dutch windmills were in use to drain areas of the Rhine River delta. In Denmark by 1900 there were about 2500 windmills for mechanical loads such as pumps and mills, producing an estimated combined peak power of about 30 MW. The first known electricity generating windmill operated was a battery charging machine installed in 1887 by James Blyth in Scotland, UK. The first windmill for electricity production in the United States was built in Cleveland, Ohio by Charles F Brush in 1888, and in 1908 there were 72 wind-
ABOVE: A vertical axis wind turbine.
ABOVE: Typical wind turbine configuration.
ABOVE: Wind power classification map of Texas. While wind turbine installation has received some resistance inside city limits and within some home owners associations. A rural application for a single home, commercial building or housing development is feasible and cost effective.
windmills were placed atop prefabricated open steel lattice towers.
A forerunner of modern horizontal-
The first utility grid-
RIGHT: A few of the edge of Wind farm in West Texas.