Danish Pioneering of Modern Wind Power - Wind Power for the World: The Rise of Modern Wind Energy - page 164

The surprising outcome of this uneven battle over a decade
was a victory to wind power and a defeat to nuclear power. This
illustrates the importance of broad public participation in democratic
decisions. It is my personal theory that the combination of long
democratic traditions and the modest size of our country have been
significant factors in the final success of the Danish wind power
adventure. This has influenced my choice of concrete examples in
this chapter. I have left out a number of technological, legal and
commercial details, as they are treated in the following chapters.

6.1 It Began Already in the 1890s

History illustrates that new technological development is often
initiated by talented and original individuals with visions of
alternative solutions for society. In the case of wind power it is
fair to give much credit to the Danish physicist Poul la Cour for his
pioneering work at Askov Folk High School in Jutland in the 1890s.
La Cour developed and built a wind turbine for electricity
production with a rotor diameter of 22 m, including mechanical
speed control. He even tested a number of rotor profiles in wind
tunnels and provided energy storage based on hydrogen produced
by electrolysis of water. The hydrogen was subsequently used for
lighting purposes. He deserves the credit of laying the ground for
modern wind power development—and for introducing production
of hydrogen as an energy carrier based on RES. More details on
the story of la Cour and his contribution to the development of
wind power are given in other chapters in this topic by Povl-Otto
Nissen and Benny Christensen.

1

The concepts and technologies developed by la Cour provided
a basis for wind electrification in Denmark during the first two
decades of the 20th century. In 1918, a total of 120 rural wind power
stations were established with rated turbine powers between
20 kW and 35 kW, yielding a total installed wind capacity of about
3 MW, compared to a total Danish electricity capacity of about
80 MW. With the typical capacity factors of that time, this
corresponds to around 3% coverage by wind of the Danish

1

See chapter History of Danish Wind Power by Benny Christensen and The

Aerodynamic Research on Windmill Sails of Poul la Cour, 1896-1900 by Povl-Otto

Nissen.