Wind power is the use of wind energy to generate useful work. Historically, wind power was used by sails, windmills and windpumps, but today it is mostly used to generate electricity. This article deals only with wind power for electricity generation.
Today, wind power is generated almost completely using wind turbines, generally grouped into wind farms and connected to the electrical grid.
In 2024, wind supplied over 2,494 TWh of electricity, which was 8.1% of world electricity.
With about 100 GW added during 2021, mostly in China and the United States, global installed wind power capacity exceeded 800 GW. 30 countries generated more than a tenth of their electricity from wind power in 2024 and wind generation has nearly tripled since 2015. To help meet the Paris Agreement goals to limit climate change, analysts say it should expand much faster – by over 1% of electricity generation per year. (Full article...)
Wind power became a significant energy source within South Australia over the first two decades of the 21st century. In 2015, there was an installed capacity of 1,475 MW, which accounted for 34% of electricity production in the state. This accounted for 35% of Australia's installed wind power capacity. In 2021, there was an installed capacity of 2052.95 MW, which accounted for 42.1% of the electricity production in the state in 2020.
The development of wind power capacity in South Australia has been encouraged by a number of factors. These include the Australian Government's Renewable Energy Target, which requires electricity retailers to source a proportion of energy from renewable sources, incentives from the South Australian Government including a supportive regulatory regime and a payroll tax rebate scheme for large scale renewable energy developments. Also, the state's proximity to the Roaring forties means there are high-quality wind resources for wind farms to exploit. In mid-2009, RenewablesSA was established by the South Australian Government to encourage further investment in renewable energy in the state. (Full article...)
Smock mill with fantail (Sønderho, Fanø, Denmark) The smock mill is a type of windmill that consists of a sloping, horizontally weatherboarded, thatched, or shingled tower, usually with six or eight sides. It is topped with a roof or cap that rotates to bring the sails into the wind. This type of windmill got its name from its resemblance to smocks worn by farmers in an earlier period. (Full article...)
The tower mill and adjoining granary is grade I listed building. The mill was built in 1819 for Isaac and Thomas Reckitt of Wainfleet. It was repaired and restored in 1988. (Full article...)
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Xarolla Windmill
The Xarolla Windmill at Żurrieq, Malta is one of the windmills constructed by the Order of St. John in the villages and towns of Malta. It was built in the 18th century and is presently one of the most preserved windmills in Malta. The windmill is an agri-tourism attraction and is found in a complex of agricultural buildings such as a farmhouse, a chapel, catacombs and others. The windmill is also used as an art studio.
In 1674 Grand MasterNicolas Cotoner built five windmills around Malta, one of which was tax-Xarolla. Tax-Xarolla Windmill was built by Grand Master Antonio Manoel de Vilhena in 1724. Sometimes after 1998, this was restored to its original working order. It is now the only functioning windmill on the islands of Malta. This is a valuable witness of local culture and heritage; it still has parts of the original mechanisms and can still grind the wheat. In the year 2000, this building was passed over to be administered by the Żurrieq Local Council and is intended to serve also as a cultural centre. The sails were extensively damaged in a gale on 18 March 2022. (Full article...)
Gudhjem Windmill (Danish: Gudhjem Mølle) is located in the village of Gudhjem on the Danish island of Bornholm. With a sail span of 24 metres (79 ft), the Dutch mill is the largest windmill in Denmark. It served from 1893 to 1962 when it was taken out of commission. (Full article...)
This is a list of offshore wind farms in Japan. Japan intends to announce winners of a second contract round for 1.8 GW of capacity in March 2024. (Full article...)
Mountlucas Wind Farm in Co Offaly This is a list of wind farms in the Republic of Ireland. Locations of all the wind farms which have coordinates below, may be seen on a map together by clicking "Map of all coordinates using OpenStreetMap" at the right side of this page. (Full article...)
Joseph Hall (1804-21 August 1871) and William Hoad purchased thirty hectares of farm land located on Metcalfe Road, Green Hill, at the original Crown sales in 1855. The following year they erected the windmill, using bluestone quarried on their property. (Full article...)
This is a list of wind farms in Australia, with a generating capacity of more than 50 MW, which are operating, under construction, or for which planning approval has been received. (Full article...)
It includes three buildings (a house built c.1928, a barn, and a smokehouse/cellar) and an Aermotorwindmill. The house is built of structural hollow clay tile, also known as structural terra cotta. (Full article...)
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North Steads Wind Farm from Druridge Bay This is a list of some onshore wind farms (more than one turbine) in the UK. This information is gathered from multiple Internet sources, primarily the UK Wind Energy Database from RenewableUK (formerly BWEA) and The Wind Power's database. There are many operational wind farms missing from the list, such as Scotland's 522 MW Clyde Wind Farm and the 68 MW Keadby Wind Farm in North Lincolnshire, England's largest onshore wind farm. The name of the wind farm is the name used by the energy company when referring to the farm and is usually related to the name of the physical location, e.g. hill, moor, fell, down etc. or the name of the agricultural farm for the smaller installations on property owned by farmers. The "wind farm" part is implied and hence removed for clarity in most cases. Listings here are restricted to wind farms with 12 turbines or more; for a more comprehensive list, please see the individual country articles. (Full article...)
Data is primarily from the 4C Offshore's Global Offshore Wind Farm Map and Database. Tariff data is supplied by the Danish Energy Agency. The name of the wind farm is the name used by the energy company when referring to the farm, and is usually related to a shoal or the name of the nearest town on shore. The "wind farm" part of the name is implied and hence omitted for ease of reading. (Full article...)
Data is primarily from the 4C Offshore's Global Offshore Wind Farm Map and Database. Tariff data is supplied by the Danish Energy Agency. The name of the wind farm is the name used by the energy company when referring to the farm, and is usually related to a shoal or the name of the nearest town on shore. The "wind farm" part of the name is implied and hence omitted for ease of reading. (Full article...)
The Wendhausen Windmill (German: Windmühle Wendhausen) is a tower mill located in Wendhausen, a town within the municipality of Lehre, Lower Saxony, Germany. Built in 1837, it is the only five-sailed windmill in Germany still in operation. (Full article...)
The Fântânele-Cogealac Wind Farm As of 2013, there was an installed capacity of 2,599 megawatts (MW) of wind power in Romania, up from the 7 MW installed capacity in 2007. Until December 2010, Romania added around 440 MW to its installed wind capacity from two wind farms: Fântânele-Cogealac and the EDP Peștera. The Fântânele-Cogealac Wind Farm has been completed in 2012 and at the time was the largest in Europe.
Romania has a wind-power potential of around 14,000 MW, and an energy-generating capacity of 23 terawatt-hours. The country's wind power capacity that can be assimilated by the national transport grid is between 3,000 MW and 9,000 MW, while only in the last two years the total power of the requests for connecting to it was about 22.800 MW. The Dobrogea region, which consists of Constanța and Tulcea counties, has the second-highest wind potential in Europe. (Full article...)
The site was listed in the 1996 World Monuments Watch by the World Monuments Fund. Restoration began by the Barbados National Trust during the following summer. In 1997, financial support was provided by American Express for emergency repairs. The mill was dismantled for restoration, and reopened in 1999. With all its original working parts having been preserved intact, the sails were able to turn again after the project was completed, and cane was ground again after more than half a century. (Full article...)
Image 4A windmill in Wales, United Kingdom. 1815. (from Windmill)
Image 5Windmill in the Azores islands, Portugal. (from Windmill)
Image 6Inside view of a wind turbine tower, showing the tendon cables (from Wind turbine)
Image 7Illustration of the wind turbine for power generation erected by Josef Friedlaender at the International Electrical Exhibition in Vienna in 1883 (from Wind turbine)
Image 10Offshore windfarms, including floating windfarms, provide a small but growing fraction of total windfarm power generation. Such power generation capacity must grow substantially to help meet the IEA's Net Zero by 2050 pathway to combat climate change. (from Wind farm)
Image 11The Persian horizontal windmill, the first practical windmill. (from Windmill)
Image 20German physicist Albert Betz had a crucial role in the development wind turbine technology. Betz's law states that no wind turbine can capture more than 59.3% of the kinetic energy of the wind. (from Wind turbine)
Image 28In the U.S. cats kill on the order of 10,000 times as many birds as wind turbines. (from Wind turbine)
Image 29The rotor of a gearless wind turbine being set. This particular turbine was prefabricated in Germany, before being shipped to the U.S. for assembly. (from Wind turbine)
Image 30The first automatically operated wind turbine, built in Cleveland in 1887 by Charles F. Brush. It was 60 feet (18 m) tall, weighed 4 tons (3.6 metric tonnes) and powered a 12 kW generator. (from Wind turbine)
Image 68Kiosk at the base of the Lamma WindsNordex N50/800kW wind turbine on Lamma Island with displays showing current power output and cumulative energy produced. (from Wind turbines on public display)
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1813 technical drawing (from Windmill)
James Blyth's electricity-generating wind turbine, photographed in 1891 (from Wind turbine)
A vertical axis Twisted Savonius type turbine. (from Wind turbine)
Inside view of a wind turbine tower, showing the tendon cables (from Wind turbine)
Illustration of the wind turbine for power generation erected by Josef Friedlaender at the International Electrical Exhibition in Vienna in 1883 (from Wind turbine)
Nashtifan wind turbines in Sistan, Iran (from Wind turbine)
The Persian horizontal windmill, the first practical windmill. (from Windmill)
Wind farm interference (in yellow circle) on radar map (from Wind farm)
Windpump in far western New South Wales, Australia (from Windmill)
Part of the Biglow Canyon Wind Farm, Oregon, United States with a turbine under construction (from Wind farm)
Northern Iowa wind farm (from Wind farm)
German physicist Albert Betz had a crucial role in the development wind turbine technology. Betz's law states that no wind turbine can capture more than 59.3% of the kinetic energy of the wind. (from Wind turbine)
Thorntonbank Wind Farm, using 5 MW turbines REpower 5M in the North Sea off the coast of Belgium (from Wind turbine)
Interior view, Pantigo windmill, East Hampton, New York Historic American Buildings Survey (from Windmill)
Egbert Livensz van der Poel, Windmill Fire (17th century), National Museum in Kraków (from Windmill)
In the U.S. cats kill on the order of 10,000 times as many birds as wind turbines. (from Wind turbine)
The rotor of a gearless wind turbine being set. This particular turbine was prefabricated in Germany, before being shipped to the U.S. for assembly. (from Wind turbine)
The first automatically operated wind turbine, built in Cleveland in 1887 by Charles F. Brush. It was 60 feet (18 m) tall, weighed 4 tons (3.6 metric tonnes) and powered a 12 kW generator. (from Wind turbine)
San Gorgonio Pass wind farm, California (from Wind farm)
De Valk windmill in mourning position following the death of Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands in 1962 (from Windmill)
Nacelle of a wind turbine (from Wind turbine)
The Nordex N50 wind turbine and visitor centre of Lamma Winds in Hong Kong, China (from Wind turbine)
Development in size and power of wind turbines, 1990–2016 (from Wind turbine)
The windmills at Kinderdijk in the village of Kinderdijk, Netherlands is a UNESCO World Heritage Site (from Windmill)
An isometric drawing of the machinery of the Beebe Windmill (from Windmill)
Components of a horizontal-axis wind turbine (from Wind turbine)
A small Quietrevolution QR5 Gorlov type vertical axis wind turbine in Bristol, England. Measuring 3 m in diameter and 5 m high, it has a nameplate rating of 6.5 kW to the grid. (from Wind turbine)
The Pubnico Wind Farm taken from Beach Point, Lower East Pubnico, Nova Scotia (from Wind farm)
Components of a horizontal axis wind turbine (gearbox, rotor shaft and brake assembly) being lifted into position (from Wind turbine)
Oilmill De Zoeker, paintmill De Kat and paltrok sawmill De Gekroonde Poelenburg at the Zaanse Schans (from Windmill)
The Hancock County wind energy center in Iowa (from Wind turbines on public display)
Map of available wind power over the United States. Colour codes indicate wind power density class. (from Wind farm)
Offshore Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines (HAWTs) at Scroby Sands Wind Farm, England (from Wind turbine)
An aerial view of Whitelee Wind Farm, the largest onshore wind farm in the UK and second-largest in Europe (from Wind farm)
Offshore wind turbines near Copenhagen, Denmark. (from Wind farm)
Cross section of a post mill (from Windmill)
Wind turbines in the Bahrain World Trade Center (from Wind turbine)
South Brooklyn Marine Terminal Wind Turbine (from Wind turbines on public display)
Hooper's Mill, Margate, Kent, an eighteenth-century European horizontal windmill (from Windmill)
Technical drawing of a 1793 Dutch smock mill for land drainage (from Windmill)
The three primary types: VAWT Savonius, HAWT towered; VAWT Darrieus as they appear in operation (from Wind turbine)
Workers inspect wind turbine blades. (from Wind turbine)
Roscoe Wind Farm, an onshore wind farm, in West Texas (from Wind farm)
Kiosk at the base of the Lamma Winds Nordex N50/800kW wind turbine on Lamma Island with displays showing current power output and cumulative energy produced. (from Wind turbines on public display)
Jhimpir Wind Farm, Pakistan (from Wind farm)
The Gansu Wind Farm in China is the largest wind farm in the world, with a target capacity of 20,000 MW by 2020. (from Wind farm)
Gouda Wind Facility, South Africa (from Wind farm)
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