Turbines, Wind
Harnessing the wind to do work is not new. In 3000 B.C.E. wind propelled the sail boats of ancient peoples living along the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea. The Swiss and French used wind-powered pumps in 600, which was shortly followed by windmills used to make flour from grain. By 1086, there were 5,624 water mills south of the Trent and the Severn rivers in England. Holland alone once had over 9,000. As late as the 1930s in the United States, windmills were the primary source of electricity for rural farms all across the Midwest. Although the advent of fossil fuel technologies shifted energy production from animal, wind, and water, dependence upon these finite fossil energy sources and concern over atmospheric pollutants, including carbon dioxide, are causing a resurgence of interest in early energy sources such as wind.
Wind turbines in use at the turn of the twenty-first century primarily produce electricity. In developed countries where electric grid systems connect cities, town, and rural areas, wind farms consisting of numerous wind turbines produce electricity directly to the electric grid. In developing countries, remote villages are not connected to the electric grid. Smaller wind turbines, singly or in groups, have tremendous potential to bring electricity to these remote locations without requiring the significant investment in transmissionlines that would be required for grid connection.
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