page_title: History of wind power
section_title: Fuel-saving turbines
hierarchical_section_title: History of wind power / 20th century / 1900–1973 / Fuel-saving turbines
caption_attribution_description: English: NASA/DOE 7.5 megawatt three wind turbine cluster in Goodnoe Hills, Washington, photo courtesy of NASA
context_page_description: Wind power has been used as long as humans have put sails into the wind. For more than two millennia wind-powered machines have ground grain and pumped water. Wind power was widely available and not confined to the banks of fast-flowing streams, or later, requiring sources of fuel. Wind-powered pumps drained the polders of the Netherlands, and in arid regions such as the American mid-west or the Australian outback, wind pumps provided water for livestock and steam engines.
  With the development of electric power, wind power found new applications in lighting buildings remote from centrally-generated power. Throughout the 20th century parallel paths developed small wind plants suitable for farms or residences, and larger utility-scale wind generators that could be connected to electricity grids for remote use of power. Today wind-powered generators operate in every size range between tiny plants for battery charging at isolated residences, up to near-gigawatt sized offshore wind farms that provide electricity to national electrical networks.
  By 2014, over 240,000 commercial-sized wind turbines were operating in the world, producing 4% of the world's electricity.
context_section_description: During the Second World War, small wind generators were used on German U-boats to recharge submarine batteries as a fuel-conserving measure. In 1946 the lighthouse and residences on the island of Neuwerk were partly powered by an 18 kW wind turbine 15 metres in diameter, to economize on diesel fuel. This installation ran for around 20 years before being replaced by a submarine cable to the mainland.
  The Station d'Etude de l'Energie du Vent at Nogent-le-Roi in France operated an experimental 800 KVA wind turbine from 1956 to 1966.
caption: The NASA/DOE 7.5 megawatt Mod-2 three turbine cluster in Goodnoe Hills, Washington in 1981.
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