Networks of Wind Energy Enthusiasts and the Development of the “Danish Concept” - Wind Power for the World: The Rise of Modern Wind Energy - page 126

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a folk high school teacher
of mathematics and science, began to consider that the rural
population would benefit from electric power generation. He
began experimenting with wind energy as a way to drive an
electric generator. These first Danish WECs typically featured four
or more blades, sometimes slatted, and typically in a “smock-mill”
configuration where the driveshaft was used to drive a DC generator
rather than pumps or milling equipment. The Askov folk high school
of Poul la Cour would serve as a training ground for various early
“wind engineers” Denmark and one notable pupil that deserves
further mention.

In the late 1800s, Poul la Cour,

Figure 5.8 Poul la Cour (left); la Cour-type windmill, Denmark.

Johannes Juul, who may be seen as the “godfather” of Danish
wind industry was one of la Cour's pupils before he would go on to
eventually design the famous 200 kW Gedser turbine. This design,
a third in a series that Juul had developed, featured an upwind
3-blade configuration, a gearbox connected to an asynchronous
generator, stall regulation, an active yaw system, and both
mechanical brakes and tip brakes. This very design, with
enhancements in the blade design and other features, is what
we now commonly associate with the “Danish Concept” of wind
energy which has become a dominant design for wind energy
that persists to the present day. Though Juul's prototype design
constructed in 1957 was never turned into an efort of mass
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See chapter The Aerodynamic Research on Windmill Sails of Poul la Cour,

1896-1900 by Povl-Otto Nissen.