Who developed the first wind turbine to create electricity?
History of wind power
Across the Atlantic, in Cleveland, Ohio a larger and heavily engineered machine was designed and constructed in the winter of 1887–1888 by Charles F. Brush,[20] this was built by his engineering company at his home and operated from 1886 until 1900.[21] The Brush wind turbine had a rotor 17 m (56 foot) in diameter and was mounted on an 18 m (60 foot) tower. Although large by today's standards, the machine was only rated at 12kW; it turned relatively slowly since it had 144 blades. The connected dynamo was used either to charge a bank of batteries or to operate up to 100 incandescent light bulbs, three arc lamps, and various motors in Brush's laboratory. The machine fell into disuse after 1900 when electricity became available from Cleveland's central stations, and was abandoned in 1908.[22]
Windstar turbine
The Windstar vertical-axis turbine is a lift-type device with straight blades attached at each end to a central rotating shaft. Windstar turbines were invented by Robert Nason Thomas and developed by Wind Harvest International, Inc., formerly the Wind Harvest Company, based in Point Reyes, California. Windstar turbines are operated as Linear Array Vortex Turbine Systems (LAVTS). Each rotor unit has a dual braking system of pneumatic disc brakes and blade pitch. All Windstar models use off-the-shelf generators, gearboxes, bearings and other components.