I N T R O D U C T I O N PEACE AND WAR WEALTH AND POVERTY PROGRESS AND SETBACKS HISTORY HAS BROUGHT HUGE SWINGS IN THE HUMAN CONDITION AND WITH EVERY CHOICE PEOPLE MAKE THERE IS THE POTENTIAL TO MOVE FORWARD OR STEP BACKWARD AT THE CORE OF THIS CONTINUAL STRUGGLE HAS BEEN THE QUEST FOR ENERGY ENERGY GAVE HUMANS POWER AND MOTIVATED THEM TO DO GREAT THINGS WITH BOTH POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE EFFECTS WITHOUT ENERGY PEOPLE WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO DRIVE CARS OPERATE COMPUTERS OR POWER FACTORIES WARS ARE FOUGHT TRYING TO DOMINATE SOURCES OF ENERGY FORTUNES ARE MADE AND LOST DEPENDING ON HOW THAT ENERGY IS MANAGED THE LAWS OF PHYSICS STATE THAT ENERGY CANNOT BE CREATED OR DESTROYED THAT IS TRUE BUT ENERGY CAN BE HARNESSED AND DIRECTED IT CAN BE WASTED OR IT CAN BE COAXED INTO EFFICIENCY CIVILIZATIONS AND TECHNOLOGIES HAVE LEAPED FORWARD AND SOMETIMES BACKWARD AS HUMANS HAVE TAPPED INTO EARTH’S SOURCES OF ENERGY Wind power is one of the world’s fastest growing energy sources 4
In medieval times when storms blew down dead branches from trees peasants were sometimes allowed to take this wood for free and use it to warm their homes This windfall was a welcome bonus in their difficult lives Today wind provides another bonus to people in the form of energy Wind power has been used for cen turies but in the last 50 years it’s be come an industry On land and across the sea from the Great Plains of the United States to the seas in northern Europe wind provides electricity to millions of people Fossil fuels are becoming scarcer more expensive and more problematic making renewable energy much more popu lar As people turn toward new ways of producing energy wind power has a window of opportunity 5
CHAPTER ONE CATCHING THE WIND FRIEND OR FOE Ask someone that question about the wind and the answer will likely depend on the conditions Wind can be a cooling breeze on a hot day Or it can come with gale force as a tornado or hurricane that destroys homes and whole cities Sometimes it’s helpful carrying seeds through the air to be pollinated Other times it blows with such strength that it can remove an entire layer of soil that farmers need for crops Wind is invisible and uncontrollable But it’s everywhere And it doesn’t cost a thing The wind is full of power if people can only catch it Most seed-producing plants and crops around the world rely on anemophily or wind pollination 6
Ancient Egyptians Greeks and Romans used wind for transportation The wind currents over the seas filled the sails of boats On land people harnessed the wind for other jobs Early windmills provided power for tasks that were tiresome for people to do by hand such as grinding grain or pumping water Windmills were at work in Persia present-day Iran by about the seventh century A D The machines then spread east to Asia and north to Europe The four-pointed Dutch windmill is a famous image These brightly painted windmills served as landmarks and gathering places They needed to be tended all the time so sometimes people even lived inside them Historians believe that between the 14th and 19th centuries wind provided about 25 percent of Europe’s energy needs Wind energy powered much of Europe before the Industrial Revolution but it didn’t take off in the Americas for a long time In 1883 a writer for the magazine Scientific American noted It seems incomprehensible that such a ready and potent agent the wind should escape practical use so completely as it does That lack of use was about to change By the turn of the century As shown on this Polish stamp ancient Greek ships used both oars and wind power to sail 7
