Power: Windmills stage a comeback: ‘Born again’ amid the search for fossil-fuel alternatives, wind-generated electricity now makes technical and economic sense

On October 29, 1975, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) inaugurated a 100-kW wind-powered generating system at its Plum Brook facility near Cleveland, Ohio. This event is important, not because such efforts were unprecedented, but because it marked the initial step in building even larger wind-powered stations (1 to 10 MW) based on modern technology. There is now considerable interest in exploiting “windy” areas such as coastal regions, Hawaii, and the U.S. Midwest. Meanwhile, several small U.S. utilities are looking closely at wind-powered generators of 100–1000 kW capacity to meet their ever-increasing load demands.