Introduction

Abstract

Nowadays, wind energy is at last reaching its potential as this book fully illustrates. It has developed from humble beginnings over 80 years ago when modern turbines were first developed to provide 10–20 kW power. These early wind turbines were mainly used for pumping water and in small-scale, mainly domestic, electricity production. Since then, the technology has grown exponentially and the only obstacle to their widespread use is political and not technical. Many countries utilise wind power as a major source of electricity generation, and with the greater realisation of the immense danger of climate change, the importance of wind energy to meet the growing demand for the energy with the lowest carbon footprint is now accepted. Such is the sophistication of the current generation of wind turbines which embody machines without gearboxes capable of producing more than 8 MW which is enough to provide electricity to a community of over 10,000 inhabitants.