Wind Power: Renewable Energy for Home, Farm, & Business (2004) by Paul Gipe

Preface

Since the mid 1970s I've followed the development of wind energy around the globe. During this time I've been a proponent, participant, observer, and critic of the wind industry. As an observer, I've traveled extensively reporting on the technology and how it's being used. As a participant, I've installed anemometers in Pennsylvania, hunted wind chargers in Montana, and measured the performance of small wind turbines in California. As a proponent, I've lectured about the promise of wind energy to groups from Vancouver to New Delhi, from Punta Arenas, Chile to Hannover, Germany. And as a critic, I've called some wind companies to task when their environmental practices were no better than the technologies they intended to supplant.

In the early 1980s, I prepared a day-long seminar on the prospects and pitfalls of wind energy. An earlier version of this book, published in 1983 under the title Wind Energy: How To Use It, grew out of the course notes for these seminars.

At that time there was a chasm between the books written for backyard tinkerers who wanted to build their own wind turbines, and those books surveying the entire field of wind energy. There was no book that answered the questions people raised in my seminars about how they could obtain a working wind system and not an experimenter's toy. Wind Energy was written to meet that need. The book was unique because it didn't simply look at the technology. It gathered tips and advice from leaders in the field and offered practical guidance on how to select, buy, and install wind turbines--and how to do so safely.

After extensive revision, Wind Energy was re-issued in 1993 by Chelsea Green Publishing as Wind Power for Home & Business. Since then the book has become a staple of both homeowners and professionals interested in the subject.

Today wind energy is a booming worldwide industry. The technology has truly come of age, and with today's heightened concern about our environment, this resurgence of interest is here to stay. Despite wind energy's success, there remains a need for a frank discourse on how to wisely use the technology. For this reason, I have written a comprehensive revision of my earlier books. Though Wind Power for Farm, Home, & Business follows the outline of the previous editions, this version includes considerable new material as well as a new, easier-to-use format.

In 1983, I sought to help newcomers to wind energy avoid the mistakes that I and others had made, and to spur development of this renewable resource. Wind Power for Farm, Home, & Business seeks the same end.

Bon Vent! (Good Wind!)
Paul Gipe
Tehachapi, California

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