An American Personal Perspective - Wind Power for the World: The Rise of Modern Wind Energy - page 558

This technology transfer involved the construction of a
windmill based on the Danish concept, which became the backbone
of the majority of the world's windmills at the time—3-bladed,
upwind, grid-connected stall regulated asynchronous induction
generator machine with fixed pitch, active yaw, and safety tip
air brakes. This design concept was used in the manufacturing of
thousands of windmills installed in Denmark and California during
the 1980s.

Figure 25.3 Steve Smiley and Preben Maegaard in Thy, Denmark, 1980s.

25.3 Political Winds

In 1980, Ronald Reagan was elected as President while our Danish-
Alaska technical exchange was under way in Homer, Alaska. Smiley
remembers driving to the voting booth with Preben Maegaard
in the car when the radio announced that Ronald Reagan had
defeated Jimmy Carter for the US presidency. Alaska is five hours
behind the east coast time of the United States, which means that
the election results were projected before Smiley had a chance to
vote. The Iranian-US hostage crisis weakened Jimmy Carter, and to
this day Middle East oil politics indirectly impacts wind energy, both