Use of Wind Power

The wind is one of the oldest naturally occurring phenomenon on planet Earth, coming into existence at the beginning of time. Since its been here, there have been numerous amounts of uses for the wind, with an emphasis on wind power. Since the beginning of written history, and perhaps even before, it has been recorded that the wind has played a serious, impactful role in the history of mankind. For instance, wind energy propelled boats along the Nile as early 5000 B.C.  As you can see, the wind can be used for transportation; boats where the main source for transportation during that early time period, if you were near water. In addition to this fact, one of the most notorious usages of wind power is the use of the windmill.

The windmill was invented by the Persians between 500-900 A.D…. and then later in China, 1200 A.D. At that point in time they were mainly used as water pumps. So, it was used as a well, that had its water put into a storage tank. How did it work, you may ask? Well, according to areomotorwindmill.com, “The hub assembly drives a geared mechanism that converts rotary motion to an up and down motion. That up and down motion drives a long sucker rod, also known as a pump rod, up and down inside of a pipe in the well.” Once the popularity and uses about windmills became widely know, their use became more and more common in locals such as Persia, and the further Middle East. Once the 11th Century came around European travelers brought the idea of the windmill back to their land of birth. As we move forward in time we learn that windmills were introduced when the settlers came over to the New World. The American colonists would use the windmills to pump water. Once Ben Franklin discovered electricity, wind power took off to a whole other level. For instance, it could light buildings remotely from a centrally generated power. The research and development lead to the technology we use today for wind power,which was introduced to the United States of America in 1854, by Daniel Halladay. He had a factory in Connecticut in which he made windmills. The sale of the windmills went up do to the Manifest Destiny, the move westward out into the Great Plains. Most of the sales were coming from farmers who could use the windmills out in the Great Plains do it's dry conditions. Daniel Halladay had so much of a success in the windmill business, that he moved his corporation to Illinois. The windmill had its uses for farming, steam driven engines, and of course a water pump.  Moving on to the 20th Century, after the mid-1900’s it fell out of favour, due to low oil prices, but when prices went up, that thought changed, and now the world was looking for alternative ways for power. This means that wind power was back in business. From around 1974 to the mid-1980’s our government worked with the industries to develop and deploy large commercial wind turbines. The research for these wind turbines were developed under a program watched by NASA, and later with funding from the National Science Foundation, and the U.S Department of Energy they were able to put 13 experimental wind turbines into operation, using four experimental designs.

During WWII in the 1940s, the largest windmill was made, it was called Grandpa’s Knob. It was an astounding 1.25 megawatts.  This would introduce the world using the windmill for electricity.Usually in today's society, the common wind energy source is the common windmill that generates electricity. As the wind turbines turn, it is connected to a shaft that is connected to a generator, thus producing the electricity.

The top three countries that lead the way in renewable energy is , Sweden, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua. The reason for these countries to lead the way for this is because they are pushing on a challenge to become the first all renewable energy country. China leads the world in wind energy, the reason why is do to the amount of land that China owns. China’s production in MW would be 114,763. Also the US ranks second in the world in wind energy production. The United States wind production total would be 68,879 MW with an additional 4,854MW. The third leader in wind production would be Germany with a total of 39,165 MW. As you can see China is the ring leader and can’t be touched in the wind production business. As of today Texas leads the way for wind power, with a total production of (17,813 MW), with followed by Iowa (6,212 MW), California, (6,108 MW), Oklahoma (5,184 MW), Illinois (3,842) and many other states behind them. California was once the leader in the wind power business until Texas took it with an acquisition. California produced 1.5 percent of the US total wind energy which is a lot even though it seems like it's really not. As of today, windmills in California can power up cities, and powerplants and homes and the surrounding areas.

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