A machine that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electricity. The first electricity-generating windmills of the late 1880s gave way, a century later, to the Danish three-blade horizontal-axis design that now dominates worldwide, with the largest offshore machines exceeding fifteen megawatts each and rotor diameters beyond two hundred meters.
Facts
Technology Type Invented YearCharles Brush built the first automatically operated electricity-generating wind turbine in Cleveland in 1888; James Blyth generated wind electricity in Scotland in 1887. Connections
Associated With
Source University of Strathclyde Science on the Streets
Developed By
Built the first automatically operating wind turbine for electricity generation, Cleveland Ohio, 1888.
James Blyth, Pioneers Blyth built the first wind turbine to generate electricity used to power a home (Marykirk, July 1887); Charles Brush's larger, automatically operated machine followed in Cleveland later the same year, already recorded on this entity's own invented-year fact.
Source Wikipedia: James Blyth (engineer)
Built the Gedser wind turbine, establishing the modern three bladed upwind turbine design, Denmark, 1957.
Co-founded Jacobs Wind Electric Company, manufacturing small wind turbines for rural electrification, 1920s to 1930s.
Designed the Smith Putnam wind turbine, the first megawatt scale wind turbine, Vermont, 1941.
Built experimental wind turbines for electricity generation and founded a school for wind electricians in Denmark, 1891.
Uses Source
Source Encyclopedia Britannica
Sources
1. Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc.britannica.com/technology/wind-turbine, page summary
Wind turbine, apparatus used to convert the kinetic energy of wind into electricity.
- Uses Source: Wind Power
View the Source University of Strathclyde Science on the Streets
University of StrathclydeAssociated With: First Wind-Generated Electricity, Science on the Streets, James BlythQuote, Associated With: First Wind-Generated Electricity, Science on the Streets, James Blyth
several months before the American Charles F. Brush installed what many mistakenly believe to be the first wind turbine
Wikipedia
Wikimedia FoundationAssociated With: Jiuquan Wind Power Base, Gansu Wind Farm, construction phasesQuote, Associated With: Jiuquan Wind Power Base, Gansu Wind Farm, construction phases
completion of the project's first phase, involving the installation of over 3,500 wind turbines with an installed capacity of approximately 5,160 MW
Wikipedia: James Blyth (engineer)
Developed By: James Blyth, James Blyth (engineer), Career sectionQuote, Developed By: James Blyth, James Blyth (engineer), Career section
In July 1887 Blyth built a cloth-sailed wind turbine (or windmill) in the garden of his holiday cottage in Marykirk and used the electricity it produced to charge accumulators; the stored electricity was used to power the lights in his cottage, which thus became the first house in the world to be powered by wind-generated electricity.
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