Wind

Energy
History

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 Historical Development of Wind Energy

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First windmills
•first machines used in the Orient – as early as 1700 BC
predominantly for lifting of irrigation water

•thus, wind energy technology played a vital role in the

formation of the so called “hydraulic societies” (Karl Wittvogel)

•written evidence for the use of wind energy exists also for
Afghanistan around 700 AD

•even today, remnants of windmills (for grinding corn) can

be found in Afghanistan and Persia

•all early designs had vertical axes

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Contents

•first vertical axis windmills (Orient)

•designed for one wind direction only
•lifting irrigation water for “hydraulic civilizations”

•horizontal axis windmills (Occident)

•first for grinding grain
•water lifting for draining Polders in Holland

•technical innovations
•side wheel, spring sails
•Smeaton 1759

•American farm wind mill (“Western Mill”)

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 Ruins of two windmills (Afghanistan, 1977)

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 Persian wind Persian wind mill (schematic)

one direction only!

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Chinese windmills 2

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Chinese windmills 1

•these water-lifting devices date back to around 1000 AD

• they create a similar asymmetry as the solid buildings of

the Persian wind mill by canvas, rotating out of the wind

•thus, the „blades“ (braided mats) flap into two positions

during one rotation
•in contrast to Persian wind mills, however, they have the
advantage of working independent of the wind direction

•Persian wind mills did not have this typical advantage of

vertical axis machines

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Horizontal Horizontal axis machines

•in the Occident, wind turbines were invented much later

•from the beginning, horizontal axis machines were used

while the first Oriental wind machines were for water
lifting, first Occidental machines were for milling grain

•origins of wind mills in Europe are debated

did the crusaders brought the first wind mills back from Syria
or did they introduce them there?

•first written proof of wind energy use in Europe around

1200 AD: post wind mill in an English prayer book

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Post wind mill Post wind mill for water pumping

•from around 1400 AD, a modified post wind mill was

developed in Holland for lifting water

•Holland needed to increase its agricultural usable land –

though draining its polders
they had to transmit the driving force of the wind to the
pump, located underneath the mill

•note the Archimedian screw pump (“high tech” of the

medieval times)

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 1 brake wheel
2 shaft for sack hoist
3 hand-driven
7 hopper
8 millstones
9 traverse beam
10 brake lever
11 brake rope
12 hoist operating rope
13 floor for flour sacking
15 tail pole
16 central post
17 sack hoist
18 quarter bars
19 cross trees
20 foundation

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 Wipmolen (Holland after 1400 AD)

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Tower mill (Tower mill (Mediterranean mill)

•post wind mills did not spread in Southern Europe

•instead, here the tower mill was developed
•main features
•cylindrical building
•a thatch roofed cap (in the beginning fixed direction)
•multi-laded (6 and more) sail rotors

•of similar design, in the 1500s, were the Dutch smock mills
•octagonal towers
•rotating caps to align the rotor to the wind
•generally two grindstones (one for lighter winds, two for stronger
winds)

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 Mediterranean and Dutch smockmill

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 Wind mill from Azores (Portugal)

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 Old and new – Porto Santo, Madeira

in the background: 8 units of AEROMAN 12.5/30, 15 m tower, 30 kW – identical with the 10 unit wind park at Sijiao, Chengsi County

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Paltrock mill

•developed in the 17th

century for low wind speeds
sitting on a 3 to storey brick building
the wooden wind mill
was similar to the

•Dutch smock mill

note: side wheel for active
orientation
towards the wind

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American farm windmill

•developed in the mid-1880s for providing drinking water

•for both man and animal
•characteristics:
welded or riveted multi-blade metal rotor (12 to 33 blades),
rotor diameter 3 to 5 m
lattice tower
piston pump
•design exported to Australia and Argentina
•technical innovation ?

•20 years further development to modernize farm mill by the

Netherlands without positive result halted in 1990

•dissemination in North Africa, India, Sri Lanka etc. not successful

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 Old and new – Germany
in the
background:
ENERCON E40
gearless
wind turbine,
40 m rotor
diameter,
500 kW

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 Typical Western Mill in Africa today

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Operation of a windmill

•with two or three grindstones connected to one rotor, the

miller could control the turbine by the amount of grain
milled simultaneously

•in addition, he could furl up the canvas of the sails

(reefing) to reduce the effective blade area

•however, if the wind speed increased suddenly, only

mechanical braking would help

•as the mills were wooden construction, wind mills on fire

were a familiar site at that time: the brakes had failed, or
the miller had reacted too late...

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Technological innovations

• former windmills could not operate unattended

the miller had to constantly check wind speed, direction
and the supply of grain to the grindstone

• to orient the rotating cap towards the wind, the miller used
the help of his donkey

• only later the side wheel – oriented perpendicular to the

main wind direction-was introduced

• by auxiliary gears, this wheel would orient the cap to the wind, and
lift up the sacks of grain to the top storeys

• major innovation mid-1800s: spring sails – shutter-like

features to reduce effective rotor area

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Early scientific work on windmills

• John Smeaton in England discovered 1759 the increase

of efficiency through twisting the blade

• he proposed an angle of inclination of 18°at the hub and

7°at the blade tip

• in the absence of a wind tunnel, he built an intelligently

conceived test apparatus to measure the efficiency of a rotor

• John Smeaton was one of the first persons to systematically use

scientific discoveries for improving

•every-day techniques – the dawn of industrial revolution

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 John Smeaton test apparatus 1759

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Summary

• wind energy utilization invented in the Orient – probably in

today Afghanistan, Persia or China

• vertical axis machines for pumping and grinding grain

• much later horizontal axis machines in Europe after ca.1200 AD

• little improvements over time until the end of 18th century

• modernization of Western wind pump technically

successful, but no commercial effect

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Industrial revolution

„mechanical revolution“ through wind and water mills

between 11th and 13th century
• power output of 2 to 3 horse power (hp) for a water mill
• and 5 to 10 hp for a typical wind mill

in the 1800s, steam and internal combustion engines

started to replace wind and watermills
but only gradual – Germany for example had in 1895

• 54,500 water mills

• 18,400 wind mills

• 58,500 steam engines. and

•21,300 internal combustion engines

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 Horizontal axis windmills
• Horizontal axis windmills (Occident)
• First for grinding grain
• Water lifting for draining Polders in Holland

Wipmolen ~1400 AD Tower mill ~1500 AD

Post windmill ~1400 AD

Paltrock mill ~ 1650 AD Dutch mill ~ 1700 AD Western wind pump ~1850 AD

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