Wind Power for the World

“Wind Power for the World tells an exciting tale of hope and promise—how a small band of activists, dreamers, and entrepreneurs built one of the world’s fastest-growing and most dynamic industries. It is a must read for anyone wanting to understand how we got to where we are today.”

~Paul Gipe, Author of Wind Energy Comes of Age

“Wind Power for the World is the collective name given to two volumes (out of six) from Pan Stanford Series on Renewable Energy. The first volume, The Rise of Modern Wind Energy, gives an overview of the past 40 years of development in the sector and starts with a section discussing the usefulness and necessity of wind energy. The next few chapters describe the development of the industry in Denmark and Germany, a section which benefits greatly from input by Preben Maegaard who was director of the Folkecenter, Denmark, and intimately involved in the development of wind energy throughout this time. Detailed in these chapters are the history of prototypes, revolutionary concepts such as direct drive, the accompanying breakthroughs in power electronics, and the subsequent feed-in of these new developments, which led to their increasing acceptance in countries such as the United States and China. The second volume, International Reviews and Developments, looks at the current state of the industry in over 20 different countries, spanning all five continents and all stages of development, and discusses possible future developments. It discusses the problems of continuing reliance on fossil fuels, the uphill struggle it has been in many places to get wind power accepted, and the advantages of wind power. Other chapters look at topics such as public ownership, popular acceptance, importance of key people and policies in the many different countries, and the foundation of the World Wind Energy Association (WWEA).

These two volumes can be recommended to everybody as those who are not already well acquainted with the recent history of wind power and want a good survey of the industry's current state and prospects will find them an ideal place to start from and those who are reasonably familiar with the industry will also find much of interest and probably something that they didn't know.”

~Frits Ogg, Renewable Energy Consultant, the Netherlands