Modeling and Modern Control of Wind Power

Chapter 1Status of Wind Power Technologies

Haoran Zhao and Qiuwei Wu

Technical University of Denmark

1.1 Wind Power Development

Although wind power has been utilized by humans for more than 3000 years, the history of wind power for electricity production is only 120 years long.

In July 1887, Professor James Blyth (1839–1906) of Anderson's College, Glasgow built the first windmill for the production of electricity at Marykirk in Kincardineshire, Scotland [1]. The windmill was 10 m high, and was used to charge accumulators to power the lighting in the cottage. Around the same period, a wind turbine was designed and constructed in the winter of 1887-1888 by Charles F. Brush (1849–1929) in Cleveland, USA [2]. The rotor of Brush's wind turbine was 17 m in diameter and had 144 blades. The rated power was 12 kW. It was used either to charge a bank of batteries or to operate up to 100 incandescent light bulbs and various motors in Brush's laboratory.

A pioneer of modern aerodynamics, Poul la Cour (1846–1908) of Askov, Denmark, built the world's first wind tunnels for the purpose of aerodynamic tests to identify the best shape of the blades for turbines. Based on his experiments, he realized that wind turbines with fewer rotor blades were more efficient for electricity production. He designed the first four-blade wind turbine in 1891 [3].

The developments in the 20th century can be divided into two periods. From 1900–1973, the prices of wind-powered electricity were not competitive. ...