Alternative energy: wind energy and its historical development
Wind energy has once again become an important resource of the world’s energy is one of the significant developments in the energy industry at the end of the 20th century. The invention of the steam engine and the emergence of other industrial technologies that convert fossil fuels into useful energy sources seem to make wind energy forever relegated to an unimportant role in energy production. In fact, in the mid-1950s, there were already signs of changes in the situation. In the late 1960s, some signs of change could be seen. In the early 1990s, this change was becoming more and more obvious. Since the strong development of the global wind energy industry in the 1990s, its installed capacity has doubled by five times. The 1990s was a turning point. The wind turbine manufacturing industry developed into large-scale megawatt units, and was cut and merged. Offshore wind turbines were also effectively developed (see McGowan and Connors, 2000). At the beginning of the 21st century, this trend continued, especially European countries (and manufacturers) took the lead in the development of wind turbines with the help of governments to develop domestic renewable energy supply and reduce pollution emissions.
To understand what happened at the time, the following five factors must be considered. The first is demand. People have re-recognized that the earth’s fossil fuel resources are limited, and the burning of these fuels will bring environmental pollution, which prompts everyone to start looking for alternative energy sources; the second is the development potential of wind energy resources, which are ubiquitous on the earth. Many places have considerable energy density. Wind energy has been widely used in mechanical power and transportation in the past, which undoubtedly makes people want to use it again. The third is scientific and technological capabilities, especially when the rapidly developing technologies in other fields are applied to wind turbines. , Can bring revolutionary progress. These three factors have promoted the idea of using wind energy, but they are not enough. Two other factors are needed. First, there needs to be an idea of new ways to use wind energy, and secondly, there needs to be the political will to realize this idea. As early as the 1960s, several people put forward their ideas, such as Poul la Cour, Albert Betz, Palmer Putnam and Percy Thomas. They were later recognized by Johannes Juul, EWGolding, Ulrich Hitter and William Heronenus, and soon they received more participate. In the early stage of the revival of wind energy utilization, the cost of generating energy from power machines was much higher than the cost of using fossil fuels. Government support was needed to implement research, development and testing. Management reforms were proposed to connect wind turbines to the power grid, and incentives were taken to promote new technologies. develop. The support of this political will has appeared in different periods and to varying degrees, first in countries such as the United States, Denmark, and Germany, and so far, many other countries have also paid attention to it.