Wind Energy in America: A History

This compelling saga is the history of the effort to capture the power of the wind for electricity. Environmental historian Robert W. Righter has included in his narrative the first European windmills, the nineteenth-century electric experiments that empowered rural America, and finally, the immense, acres-wide wind farms that feed the power grid in late-twentieth-century California and elsewhere.
Righter tells lively tales not only of eccentric inventors and technical innovations but also of the politics of the power industry, past and present. From his thorough research in a variety of archival sources, he describes how individuals and small businesses have contributed the most to wind-energy development, concluding that for rural America at least, an individual, decentralized power system is a reasonable alternative.
Wind Energy in America, however, does not end in the past. Well over one-third of the narrative focuses on the contemporary development of wind energy and the international race for dominance in the wind-turbine business. Righter is courageous enough to take a stand regarding federal government research efforts (SERI, NRAL) and the crucial role of public and private power companies. He also explores the arguments of people and organizations opposed to the spread of wind generators - paradoxically, often the same environmental groups that hailed wind energy as a savior in the late 1970s.

Robert W. Righter is Professor of History at the University of Texas at El Paso.