This page was prompted by a technical question about early electricity-generating wind turbines in the United States. The question followed a similar question about "who was the first" to interconnect a wind turbine with an electricity network. There is a lot of confusion internationally about both subjects.
The history of wind energy is a broad subject and many have written about it. I've pulled together a list of sources, books, links, and museums that I know about. This list is far from comprehensive. If anyone wants to add to this list or edit this list, please do so.
A number of the entries below are reviews I've written of books that include the history of wind energy. The original book can usually be reached from the review. Other news items are relevant to the history of wind turbine development.
I’ve posted two new videos of historic wind turbines in operation. [more]
Included in the correspondence from Palmer Putnam to Herman Drees is a letter from Richard Heckscher who was involved in blade development on the Smith-Putnam project. (See Palmer Putnam to Herman...[more]
18-page scan of documents in the archives of Wally Thompson of correspondence from Palmer Putnam to Herman Drees in 1979.
Wally Thompson forwarded to me some fascinating correspondence from Palmer Putnam to Herman Drees of Pinson Cycloturbine fame.[more]
Erik Grove-Nielsen has confirmed that the Tvindkraft wind turbine was designed to be slightly larger than the Smith-Putnam wind turbine and become the world’s largest wind turbine in 1978.[more]
Since I posted my article on the revised rating of Smith-Putnam’s famed wind turbine of the 1940s, I’ve received several comments. (See When is a 1,250 kW Wind Turbine Only 1,000 kW? Setting the...[more]
I receive a fair amount of mail of the “What do you think of this” variety. Often it’s a quick push of the delete key and I am off about my business. Occasionally I’ve been known to go “Hmm” and...[more]
French colleague Philippe Bruyerre called my attention to an error I’ve been promulgating for at least four decades. He noted that I’d described the famed 1940’s era Smith-Putnam wind turbine as...[more]
The research for an article on the history of early wind turbines took me down one fascinating rabbit hole after another. Previously, I mentioned Dimitri Stein and his Nordwind turbine on the Island...[more]
While working on an article on the history of early wind turbines, I tumbled down a very deep rabbit hole. How was Dimitri Stein able to work on wind energy in Berlin during the height of World War...[more]
The York County History Center’s Virtual Exhibition of the Smith-Putnam wind turbine has gone live. Opening with a stunning photo of five men standing on one of the two blades after the giant turbine...[more]
19 October marks 80 years since testing began of the 1.25 MW Smith-Putnam turbine on Grandpas’ Knob near Rutland, Vermont in 1941. To mark the occasion, the York County History Center in York,...[more]
La Puissance du Vent: Des moulins á vent aux éoliennes modernes by Philippe Bruyerre is a major work on the history of wind energy particularly in France, but also elsewhere. His book earns a place...[more]
The following are the bibliographic entries I've been able to uncover for Dimitri Stein, a German-American engineer who studied wind energy in the mid 1940s. He and the company he started with others...[more]
While traveling in Belgium the day after hearing about Wobben’s death, his direct-drive Enercon turbine heritage was prominently visible along the way. The turbines’ characteristic egg-shaped...
I’ve just learned that an open-air museum of wind turbines in Germany has expanded its collection to include two US-built machines. I hope to get there some day--once Covid-19 has lifted. Nothing...[more]
In response to my article Who Built the World's First Wind Farm? Thomas Leitlein argues that it was the island of Rhodes off the coast of Turkey in the Aegean Sea. He makes his case below.[more]
As interest in the Smith-Putnam project heated up, a colleague directed me to a video of the famous mill at Gedser in Denmark. It was at Gedser where the modern wind industry began.[more]
Because of increasing historical interest in the Smith-Putnam wind turbine, I've added two new pages on the Project: patents for the wind turbine and four industrial drawings from the 1941 patent,...[more]
Ok, I am a windmill geek, have been for decades now. I work with modern wind energy, but my interest in the subject has led off in many directions, including traditional or "Dutch" windmills. I have...[more]
On this date in 1941 an ungainly wind turbine atop Vermont’s Grandpa’s Knob fed electricity into the lines of Central Vermont Public Service Company. This was the first time in North America that a...[more]
Guinness Book of Records is considering a new category--world's longest running or oldest megawatt-scale wind turbine. The question was thrown at me by Britta Jensen, one of the operators of...[more]
Times change. People die. The rest forget. The past is lost and with it the knowledge we gained at so much cost.[more]
Hermann Honnef and his dream of giant wind turbines powering Hitler's Third Reich until the SS quashed his plans. Auf Deutsch. Rare photos of Honnef's vision and key players in the Reich's program...
Budding Youtube channel by Australian Rosemary Barnes dubbed Wind Engineering with Rosie. [more]
Martyn Taylor has made a wonderful video about the development and preservation of the English windmill. Sales of the video will go to preservation efforts.[more]
French historian Étienne Rogier examines in depth one of the great wind turbine development programs of the post WWII years. En francais.
In 1980 the Department of Energy published a short film titled Wind: An Energy Alternative. The 12-minute film was produced by the Solar Energy Research Institute (SERI) probably in 1979.[more]
Sex sells. Always has, always will. Sex has been used to sell beer, cars, and even wind energy--well, at least articles about wind energy.[more]
The 1992 report on the project by the Centre de Recherche Energétiques et Municpales reads like so many of the others from the period. In short, the four-year project was a failure for a host of...[more]
Wind historian extraordinaire Etienne Rogier sent me a carte postale (post card) promoting a 1988 French postage stamp. The card depicts the postage stamp and an experimental Darrieus turbine.[more]
French wind historien Etienne Rogier has published an article on French post war wind turbines in the latest issue of the house organ for the Fédération des Moulins de France.[more]
We feature full sized wind pumps, steam engines and a unique scoop wheel along with a collection of photographs, models of various mills which all depict the evolution of the drainage of the Broads. [more]
Someone sent me a link to a YouTube video titled Abandoned Vertical Axis Windmill In The Magdalen Islands.[more]
Renewable energy and electric vehicle fan Bob Tregilus was out and about in rural Nevada when he came across an odd wind turbine powering a well pump in the Reese River Valley. So he sent along his...[more]
Located on the arid and windswept plains of northeastern Iran, 30 miles from the Afghan border, the small village of Nashtifan is keeping ancient traditions alive amid the winds of change. The town...
Hans-Detlef Feddersen sent me a copy of a little picture book celebrating the 25th anniversary of Bürger-Windpark Lübke-Koog. He included a DVD video of interviews with the founders of the...[more]
Benny Christensen knows his windmills. An early anti-nuclear activist and proponent of 100% renewable energy—a photo of him appears in Steven Borish’s Land of the Living—Christensen has now turned...[more]
Yes, I’ve written about this subject once before, Everything You Need to Know about Wind Energy Was Written in 1957!, but I am moving the date back thirty years in the light of more research. The...[more]
Largely forgotten today, Georges Jean Marie Darrieus was one of France’s great engineers. While he is mostly known in the English-speaking world for his patent on vertical-axis wind turbines (VAWTs),...[more]
It is no wonder that a modern wind turbine looks so beautiful.[more]
On this date in 1941, the first commercial-scale wind turbine was connected to the electrical grid in the United States. It was a milestone in the development of wind energy. The giant Smith-Putnam...[more]
No. That title isn’t click bate. Long ago, in a land far away, I had to give a speech on the future of wind energy. That’s not noteworthy; I do it all the time. What was noteworthy, though, was that...[more]
In 1919 the utility installed a wind turbine at Buddinge and connected it to its lines—a first worldwide, a full two decades before the Smith-Putnam machine in Vermont was connected to the grid.[more]
Today marks the liberation of the Buchenwald concentration camp in 1945 by the 6th armored division of the US Third Army. Buchenwald is significant for several reasons. 56,000 people died in the...[more]
In the research for my new book, Wind Energy for the Rest of Us, I came across several unsung heroes of wind energy development. One of those was French engineer Louis Vadot.[more]
The Madison County (Indiana) Historical Society was able to locate the photo that I'd seen on display in mid 2015 of Charles E Miller's 1926 wind turbine in Anderson, Indiana.[more]
Miller is practically unknown among historians for his contribution to wind energy technology. He could be an unsung Hoosier hero for his invention of the pitchable blade tip.[more]
In the research for my forthcoming book, Wind Energy for the Rest of Us, I came across a lot of intriguing information about the development of wind energy. While fascinating, much of it is too far...[more]
Miller was an inveterate inventor and the Madison County (Indiana) Historical Society has an exhibited devoted to his work. It was here that I first saw a clipping of his wind turbine.[more]
Wherein we reconnect with a Dutch miller and learn of his campaign to preserve his adopted country’s watermills.[more]
I am continuing to update my web site by posting a series of photographs taken many years ago of Dutch or European windmills. There are now three new sub categories under Traditional Windmills: ...[more]
I don’t have a good answer to that question. All I know is that I stumbled a cross a faded newspaper clipping at the Madison County Historical Society that pictured a wind turbine that I’d never seen...[more]
Finally an answer to a question that has gnawed at me for decades: Where did one of the great windmill manufacturers of all time get the name Aermotor? Why not Aeromotor? That was the way I’ve...[more]
Den Wind der Welt einfangen is part of series of retrospectives being issued by pioneers in the field of wind energy as they near retirement. Written by freelance journalist Dierk Jensen, Catching...[more]
Wind Power for the World tells an exciting tell of hope and promise—how a small band of activists, dreamers, and entrepreneurs built one of the world’s fastest growing and dynamic industries. It’s a...[more]
I first heard of the East 11th Street windmill in hushed voices, over cafe con leches at a Cuban restaurant on Avenue C.
I've posted photos from the late 1980s of Germany's first wind farm as well as its failed experiment with Growian.
Henning Holst is one of Germany's pioneering community wind developers. Located in the center of the wind energy universe in Husum (the gray city by the sea) in northwestern Germany, he was there at...[more]
This is a beautifully done DVD on the early days of the Danish wind industry. The film was produced by Jørgen Vestergaard in Danish with English subtitles and includes movie clips, photos, and...[more]
Windgesichter: Aufbruch der Windenergie in Deutschland (The face of wind: Dawn of wind energy in Germany) by Jan Oelker is a joy to behold. It's one of those rare cases where you can indeed tell a...[more]
Wind Power The Danish Way: From Poul la Cour to Modern Wind Turbines is a book written by a who's who of Danish wind power. It's a celebratory book and Danes have a lot to celebrate--a lot to be...[more]
One of the most spectacular developments of industrial wind power technology occurred in the Zaan district, a region situated just above Amsterdam in the Netherlands. . . From 1600 to 1750, when the...
Winds of Change by Rinie van Est is a masterly work of meticulous research that could well become a classic in its field. It should be required reading for all energy planners, and energy industry...[more]
Extensive treatise on the development, manufacture, and use of multiblade, mechanical farm windmills in France during the 19th century.
American readers will find two sections particularly intriguing: development of wind energy in Germany during the Third Reich, and a critical comparison of the German, U.S., and Danish wind energy...[more]
Timing is everything. And Peter Asmus couldn't have better timed the release of his book about the rise and fall of California's wind industry. Just as California entered its first rolling blackouts...[more]
Introduction to all the great names of French wind energy, including Georges Darrieus, Louis Vadot, Louis Constantin, the Duke de Goyon, and Laboratoire Eiffel.
"The free benefit of the wind ought not be denied to any man." [more]
The book, Land of the Living, is based on Borish's study of the Danish folkehøjskol system in the early 1980s. His book is an articulate examination of Danish culture. His theme is that Denmark could...[more]
