Wind Power
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2010
Place of publication: Cambridge; New York
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 323
ISBN-13: 9780521747639
Copyright date: 2010
Description: Climate change caused by burning fossil fuels and escalating fossil fuel prices make the further rapid development of renewable energy sources a global imperative. Energy provided by wind power, though no panacea, has the potential to make a substantial contribution to meeting electricity needs in many countries. This account of the history and future development of wind power technology offers a complete overview of this vital field. It provides a global historical assessment of wind power use, encapsulating sequential experimental changes, and concluding with narration of wind deployment, and an assessment of future options. Wind power is shown as compatible with large scale use: a clean, competitive and abundant energy source to help meet our future needs. Wind power has been used increasingly to generate electrricity sonce the early 1990s in Europe, the U.S. and elsewhere, and the global installed wind power capacity has been doubling every 3 to 4 years. It is now taming the transitions from being a minor contributor to becoming an important source of electricity. However, the level of understanding of what can be expected from wind systems in the future, and at what cost, is generally poor. This book describes the development of wind power technology from medieval times to the present. It looks forward to the important role that wind power is expected to play, a clean, competitive and abundant energy source, in helping to meet future energy needs.
Table of contents: title: Wind power and our energy needs : an overview; title: The first windmills; title: Seven centuries of service; title: Generating electricity : the experimental years, 1887 to 1973; title: The evolution of the modern wind turbine, 1973 to 1990; title: Progress and economics in Europe, 1973-1990; title: UK progress, 1973 to 1990; title: Development and deployment, 1990 to 2008; title: The future : from marginal to mainstream; title: Appendixes.; title: The power output from wind turbines; title: The performance of traditional windmills; title: Wind characteristics