Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
hydropower. Today, none can compete without large
federal and state subsidies. The intent of the subsidies is
to stimulate large-scale development so the costs will
come down with experience. They are coming down in
some cases, but more slowly than initially expected. Costs
will be discussed further in
Chapter
.
.
Wind
The use of wind power seems to have originated in Persia
sometime between
AD.
Wind power was
and
first used for grain milling, hence the name windmill. In
Europe it was used for grain and for pumping water for
irrigation, to dewater mines, and to pump water out of the
lowlands of the Netherlands. Anyone who has traveled
through the farm country of the United States has seen
many small, multi-bladed windmills that are still used to
pump water for irrigation and for watering livestock.
Windmills were an important technology that came to a
first maturity in the nineteenth century, and those devices
are the ancestors of today
s giant wind turbines that are
now being used for a new purpose, generating electricity.
The economic attraction of wind power is that its fuel is
free. The environmental attraction is that no greenhouse
gases are emitted (some environmental groups have con-
cerns about injuries to birds). The giant wind turbines of
today are expensive, and are not economic winners on
their own compared with coal-generated electricity as
'
A good short history of wind energy on the Web is Illustrated History of
Wind Power Development by D. M. Dodge at
www.teleosnet.com/wind/
