Today wind power as a renewable energy source is the fastest growing electricity source around the world. It’s sure, it will become more and more important in years to come. As fossil fuels prices have to grow, all alternative energy sources will be a must for us if we are to avoid bankruptcy. Wind is a renewable resource – it will newer run low, and people used in thousands of years now. Let s' have a look at how they'd started and how it changed over thousands of years.

First use of wind power was 7,000 years ago when ancient people used it to promote navigation on the Nile in Egypt. No one’s sure exactly when the windmills were built first, but it seems it might be in the regions of China or the Persian lands. The Romans adopted them for a few years before 250 AD. But they didn’t neither come to wide use, nor wasn’t developed. Only in the seventh century, windmills were developed to the extent that could actually provide some practical value. It was in Sistan, Iran.

Throughout that time windmills were only used to grind grain, provide farm homes with water supply and to pump water for livestock. Only in 1888 the first wind turbines to generate energy has created. They developed a lot since then, so today we have vertical axis wind turbines, which may react different wind directions and adapt to situations in which wind speed is not constant. However, the most important thing that starts from then, is located inside windmill generator converting mechanical energy into electric power. That is main difference that makes them really different from traditional windmills.

When Industrial Revolution came, it unfortunately led to a gradual decrease in the use of windmills both traditional, and modern ones. As it was able to bring inexpensive electricity to most of rural areas people had a tendency to use steam engines instead of renewable energy. Later, the popularity of wind usually moves up when the prices of oil and coal are growing, as it did during the energy crisis in 1970. After that crisis many new solutions on the use of wind energy have been developed. An example is the construction of wind farms, which produce huge amounts of electric power, and then send it to utility customers.