Though our scientists may claim that they are inventing something new by using wind as a source of generating energy, the truth is that wind is being used for centuries for this purpose. An example of this is an article published in 1838, which clearly shows that even in those times, wind
Wind mill in Bulgaria
was considered an important source of energy.
Here are a few quotes that were recorded in the past, which prove that wind was always important in generating energy.
John Houghton from Cambridge said in his paper Global Warming: The complete Briefing, ‘Given that it has been used as a form of energy for a couple of centuries, wind is a very common source of energy. The fact that there were about 10,000 windmills to tap wind energy in the Year 1800 itself, goes to show that wind was an important source of energy in parts of Europe like Britain. Therefore it is not surprising that parts of the world like some countries from Western Europe such as Great Britain and Denmark and some countries in western North America are trying to revive ways of tapping energy from wind. Slim, tall and more efficient objects have replaced windmills to tap wind energy.’
Even other researchers from Cambridge have worked on this subject. Vaclav Smil in his paper Energies wrote, ‘The windmills in 19th century, which were at par with watermills of that period with regard to generating power, were of a different design. They were used in farms and on Railway stations. Before that, post mills of 1.5 and 6 Kilowatt and tower mills of 5 to 10 kilowatts were used in Europe for this purpose.’
Studies tend to indicate that though the use of windmill to generate energy started in China, it soon spread to parts of Europe like England in the 12th century and by the end of the century there were 12000 mills in the region that needed little water to produce electricity to meet huge industrial demands.