Wind energy in history

A person standing beside modern turbine blades, illustrating their size.
Source: Wikipedia

Energy from the wind has been used by humans for more than 2,000 years.

Since the Middle Ages in Europe and even longer elsewhere in the world, windmills have used wind energy to pump water and grind corn.

The first windmills were used in Persia (now Iran) where they used wind to make mechanical energy. The wind turned a large fan that was attached to pulleys and belts and drove grinding wheels to grind, or mill, grain. This is where the name windmill came from.

At the start of the 20th century windmills were modified to pump water from underground. They are still used for this purpose today.

Soon after wind generators were developed to create electrical energy, they were put into service in isolated areas in Australia where electricity was not available.