| 500–900 AD |
- The first windmills were developed in Persia for pumping water and grinding grain.
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About
1300 |
- The first horizontal-axis windmills (like a pinwheel) appeared in Western Europe.
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| 1850s |
- Daniel Halladay and John Burnham worked to build and sell the Halladay
Windmill, designed for the American West. It had an open tower design and thin wooden
blades. They also started the U.S. Wind Engine Company.
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| Late
1880s |
- Thomas O. Perry
conducted over 5,000 wind experiments trying to build a better windmill. He
invented the mathematical windmill, which used
gears to reduce the rotational speed of the blades. This design had greater
lifting power and smoother pumping action, and the windmill could operate in lighter
winds. Perry also started the Aermotor Company with LaVerne Noyes.
- The
development of steel blades made windmills more efficient. Six million
windmills sprang up across America as settlers moved west. Homesteaders
purchased windmills from catalogs or traveling salesmen or, otherwise, built their
own. Mills were used to pump water, shell corn, saw wood, and mill grain.
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1888 |
- Charles
F. Brush used the first large windmill to generate electricity in Cleveland, Ohio.
Windmills that produce electricity started to be called wind turbines. In later years,
General Electric acquired Brush's company, Brush Electric Co.
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| 1893 |
- In Chicago, Illinois, the World's Columbian
Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) highlighted 15 windmill companies that showcased their goods.
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| Early 1900s |
- Windmills in California pumped
saltwater to evaporate ponds. This provided gold miners with salt.
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1941 |
- For several months during World War II, the
Smith-Putnam wind turbine
supplied power to the local community at "Grandpa's Knob," a hilltop near Rutland, Vermont. Its
blades were 53 meters (175 feet) in diameter.
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| 1943 |
- The Smith-Putnam wind turbine broke
down, and the machine was shut down.
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| 1945 |
- The Smith-Putnam machine was restarted,
but small cracks in the blade caused one blade to break; the turbine was shut down forever.
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| 1950s |
- Most windmill companies in the United States went out of business.
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| 1973 |
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1974–82 |
- With funding from the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) led an effort to increase wind power technology at the Lewis Research Center in Cleveland , Ohio. NASA developed 13 experimental wind turbines with four major designs:
- the MOD-0A (200 kilowatts)
- the MOD-1 (2 megawatts, the first turbine in 1979 over 1 megawatt)
- the MOD-2
(2.5 megawatts)
- the MOD-5B (3.2 megawatt).
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1978 |
- Congress passed the Public Utility Regulatory
Policies Act (PURPA) of 1978 to encourage the use of renewable energy and cogeneration facilities (plants that have another purpose besides producing electricity). PURPA requires utility companies to buy extra electricity from renewable and cogeneration facilities that meet certain qualifications, called qualifying facilities (QFs). The amount that a utility pays a QF must be equal to the cost that it would have taken the utility to produce the same amount of electricity, called the avoided cost.
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| 1979 |
- The first wind turbine rated over 1 megawatt (MOD-1),
began operating; MOD-1 had a 2-megawatt capacity rating.
- The cost of electricity from wind generation was about 40 cents per kilowatt hour.
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1980 |
- The
Crude Oil Windfall Profits Tax Act of 1980 further increased tax credits for
businesses that used renewable energy. The Federal tax credit for wind energy
reached 25%, rewarding those businesses choosing to use renewable energy.
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1983 |
- Because
of a need for more electricity, California began using a contract system that allowed certain renewable and cogeneration facilities (or in other words, QFs) to lock into rates that would make electricity generated from renewable technologies, like wind farms and geothermal plants, more cost competitive. Prices were based on the costs saved by not building planned coal plants.
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1985 |
- Many
wind turbines were installed in California in the early 1980s to help meet growing electricity needs and to take advantage
of government incentives. By 1985, California wind capacity exceeded 1,000 megawatts, enough power to supply 250,000 homes.
These wind turbines were very
inefficient.
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| 1987 |
- The MOD-5B was the largest wind turbine operating in the world — with a rotor diameter of nearly 100 meters (330 feet) and a rated power of 3.2 megawatts.
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1988 |
- Many
of the hastily installed turbines of the early 1980s were removed and later
replaced with more reliable models.
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1989 |
- Throughout
the 1980s, DOE funding for wind power research and development declined, reaching its low point in
1989.
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1990 |
- More
than 2,200 megawatts of wind energy capacity was installed in California — more than
half of the world's capacity at the time.
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1992 |
- The Energy
Policy Act of 1992 called for increased energy efficiency and renewable energy use and authorized a
production tax credit of
1.5 cents per kilowatt hour for wind-generated electricity.
It also reformed the Public Utility Holding Company Act to help make smaller utility companies more able to compete with larger ones.
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1993 |
- U.S. Windpower developed one of the first commercially
available variable-speed wind turbines, the 33M-VS. The development was completed over five years, with the final prototype tests completed in 1992. The $20-million
project was funded mostly by U.S. Windpower, but
also involved Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), Pacific Gas &
Electric, and Niagara Mohawk Power Company.
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1995 |
- In a ruling against the California Public
Utility Commission, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) refused to allow utilities to pay qualifying renewable facilities (QFs) rates that were higher than the utilities' avoided cost, the amount that it would cost the utility to produce the same amount of electricity.
- The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Wind Energy Program lowered
technology costs. DOE�s advanced turbine program
led to new turbines with energy costs of 5 cents per kilowatt hour of
electricity generated.
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Mid-1990s |
- Ten-year Standard Offer contracts written during
the mid-1980s (at rates of 6 cents per kilowatt hour and higher) began
to expire. The new contract rates reflected a much lower avoided cost of about 3 cents per
kilowatt hour and created financial hardships
for most qualifying renewable and cogeneration facilities (QFs).
- Kenetech, the producer of most of the U.S.-made wind generators, faced
financial difficulties; it sold off most of its assets and stopped making
wind generators.
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| 1999 |
- Wind generated electricity reached the 2,000 megawatt mark.
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1999–2000 |
- Installed capacity of wind-powered, electricity-generating equipment exceeded 2,500
megawatts. Contracts for new wind farms continued to be signed.
- The cost of electricity from wind generation was from 4 to 6 cents per kilowatt hour.
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| 2003 |
- Installed
capacity of wind-powered, electricity-generating equipment was 4,685 megawatts as of January 21.
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| 2004 |
- The cost of electricity from wind generation was 3 to 4.5 cents per kilowatt hour.
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2005 |
- The
Energy Policy Act of 2005 strengthened incentives for wind and other
renewable energy sources.
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| 2006 |
- DOE’s budget for wind subsidies was about $500 million — about 10 times as much as the 1978 level.
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2007 |
- Wind power provided 5 percent of the renewable energy used in the United States.
- U.S. wind power produced enough electricity, on average, to power the equivalent of over 2.5 million homes.
- Installed capacity of wind-powered, electricity-generating equipment was 13,885 megawatts as of September 30 — more than four times the capacity in 2000.
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