Portal:Wind power

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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 2025, wind supplied about 2,700 TWh of electricity, which was over 8% 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...)

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Wind is the natural movement of air or other gases relative to a planet's surface. Winds occur on a range of scales, from thunderstorm flows lasting tens of minutes, to local breezes generated by heating of land surfaces and lasting a few hours, to global winds resulting from the difference in absorption of solar energy between the climate zones on Earth. The study of wind is known as anemology.

The two main causes of large-scale atmospheric circulation are the differential heating between the equator and the poles, and the rotation of the planet, which is called the Coriolis effect. Within the tropics and subtropics, thermal low circulations over terrain and high plateaus can drive monsoon circulations. In coastal areas the sea breeze/land breeze cycle can define local winds; in areas that have variable terrain, mountain and valley breezes can prevail. (Full article...)

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General windmill articles

Image 1
Henvey Inlet, the largest wind farm in Ontario and the third largest in Canada

This is a list of the ten largest operational wind farms in Canada. The name of the wind farm is the name used by the energy company when referring to the farm.

The Centennial Wind Power Facility in Saskatchewan was the first wind farm in Canada to have a capacity of at least 100 MW upon completion in 2006. Since then numerous other wind farms have surpassed the 100 MW threshold, most often through the expansion of existing wind farms. All but two of Canada's provinces or territories are home to at least one wind farm, those without being Nunavut and the Northwest Territories. (Full article...)
Image 2
Gudhjem Windmill, Bornholm

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...)
Image 3
Pedersker Kirkemølle, Bornholm

Pedersker Kirkemølle is a Dutch windmill located in the little village of Pedersker on the Danish island of Bornholm. It functioned until 1969. (Full article...)
Image 4

Montefiore Windmill, 30 March 2016

The Montefiore Windmill is a landmark windmill in Jerusalem. Designed as a flour mill, it was built in 1857 on a slope opposite the western city walls of Jerusalem, where three years later the new Jewish neighbourhood of Mishkenot Sha'ananim was erected, both by the efforts of British Jewish banker and philanthropist Moses Montefiore. Jerusalem at the time was part of Ottoman-ruled Palestine. Today the windmill serves as a small museum dedicated to the achievements of Montefiore. It was restored in 2012 with a new cap and sails in the style of the originals. The mill can turn in the wind. (Full article...)
Image 5
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...)
Image 6
Windmills are powered by their sails. Sails are found in different forms, from primitive common sails to the advanced patent sails. (Full article...)
Image 7
Wind farms and battery farms in the United States

This is a list of large wind farms in the United States. Many of the wind farms in the United States are located in the Great Plains. (Full article...)
Image 8
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...)
Image 9
Burgos Wind Farm in Burgos, Ilocos Norte

This is an incomplete list of power plants present in the Philippines. (Full article...)
Image 10
Offshore wind farms in the German Bight

The following is a list of offshore wind farms in Germany, operational within the national maritime boundaries. Germany, along with Denmark and the United Kingdom is a worldwide leader in advancing offshore wind farm technology.
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. (Full article...)
Image 11

Mostert's Mill, September 2012

Mostert's Mill (Afrikaans: Mostert se Meul) is a historic windmill in Mowbray, Cape Town, South Africa. It was built in 1796 and is the oldest surviving complete windmill in South Africa. It was almost completely destroyed by a wildfire on 18 April 2021 but was fully restored by April 2024 and is once more operational and used to grind wheat into whole meal, using the power of the wind. The oldest windmill in South Africa is the De Nieuwe Molen mill in Cape Town, built in 1782. (Full article...)
$Image 12 This is a list of operational, offshore wind farms in Denmark (within the national maritime boundaries). Denmark's wind power generation is the highest in the world as a fraction of domestic consumption, reaching 47% in 2019. Data is primarily from the 4C Offshore's Global Offshore Wind Farm Map and Database. Tariff data is supplied by the Danish Energy Agency. The name of the wind farm is the name used by the energy company when referring to the farm, and is usually related to a shoal or the name of the nearest town on shore. The "wind farm" part of the name is implied and hence omitted for ease of reading. (Full article...)$

Image 12
This is a list of operational, offshore wind farms in Denmark (within the national maritime boundaries). Denmark's wind power generation is the highest in the world as a fraction of domestic consumption, reaching 47% in 2019.

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...)
Image 13
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...)
$Image 14 This is a list of operational, offshore wind farms in Denmark (within the national maritime boundaries). Denmark's wind power generation is the highest in the world as a fraction of domestic consumption, reaching 47% in 2019. Data is primarily from the 4C Offshore's Global Offshore Wind Farm Map and Database. Tariff data is supplied by the Danish Energy Agency. The name of the wind farm is the name used by the energy company when referring to the farm, and is usually related to a shoal or the name of the nearest town on shore. The "wind farm" part of the name is implied and hence omitted for ease of reading. (Full article...)$

Image 14
This is a list of operational, offshore wind farms in Denmark (within the national maritime boundaries). Denmark's wind power generation is the highest in the world as a fraction of domestic consumption, reaching 47% in 2019.

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...)
Image 15

Vinegar Hill Windmill or Templeshannon Windmill is a tower mill on Vinegar Hill, Enniscorthy, County Wexford. (Full article...)
Image 16

Moulin de Craca.

Moulin de Craca is a windmill in Plouézec, Côtes-d'Armor, France. First working in 1844 it was restored from 1995. It is popular amongst both locals and tourists because of its location on top of a cliff overlooking Port Lazo.

Every August the Plouézec-Ballinamore twinning committee organises Noz Ar Vilin Fest Noz around the windmill. There is a selection of Breton and Irish music and dancing, as well as local cuisine and drinks. Amongst the specialities are Moules-Frites (Mussels and chips), Crêpes, Galettes, Breton cider, and Chouchen. (Full article...)
Image 17

View of the Bourne Windmill 1975

The Bourne Windmill, Oakdale, New York was an American farm design tower windmill, built in 1911 by Commodore Frederic G Bourne, as part of a farm in Oakdale, New York. It was located north of his South Shore estate, known as Indian Neck Hall, which later became LaSalle Military Academy. The windmill was demolished in 2004–2005. (Full article...)
Image 18
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 all coordinates using OpenStreetMap" at the right side of this page. (Full article...)
Image 19

The Alexander & Anna Schwartz Farm, located at 57 E. Rd. 70 in Dighton, Kansas, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2014.

It includes three buildings (a house built c.1928, a barn, and a smokehouse/cellar) and an Aermotor windmill. The house is built of structural hollow clay tile, also known as structural terra cotta. (Full article...)
Image 20
Aerial view of Lillgrund Wind Farm

This is a list of operational, offshore wind farms in Sweden (within the national maritime boundaries).

This information is gathered from multiple Internet sources, and commercial sources.
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 is implied and hence removed for clarity. (Full article...)
Image 21
Worldwide installed capacity (1996–2015)

This is a list of the largest onshore wind farms that are currently operational, rated by generating capacity. Also listed are onshore wind farms with notability other than size, and largest proposed projects. (Full article...)
Image 22
The following page lists all the power stations in Sweden. For traction power, see List of installations for 15 kV AC railway electrification in Sweden. (Full article...)
Image 23
Haigh Windmill

A tower mill is a type of vertical windmill consisting of a brick or stone tower, on which sits a wooden 'cap' or roof, which can rotate to bring the sails into the wind.

This rotating cap on a firm masonry base gave tower mills great advantages over earlier post mills, as they could stand much higher, bear larger sails, and thus afford greater reach into the wind. Windmills in general had been known to civilization for centuries, but the tower mill represented an improvement on traditional western-style windmills. The tower mill was an important source of power for Europe for nearly 600 years from 1300 to 1900, contributing to 25 percent of the industrial power of all wind machines before the advent of the steam engine and coal power. (Full article...)
Image 24

The mill in June 2014

Holgate Windmill is a tower mill at Holgate in York, North Yorkshire, England which has been restored to working order. (Full article...)
Image 25
Morgan Lewis Sugar Mill.

Morgan Lewis Sugar Mill is a sugar windmill in St. Andrew, Barbados. It is the biggest and only surviving complete version in the Caribbean. The mill stopped operating in 1947. In 1962, it was donated to the Barbados National Trust by its owner Egbert L. Bannister for preservation as a museum.

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...)

Topics

Wind power topics

Windmill topics

A windmill is a machine operated by the force of wind acting on vanes or sails to mill grain (gristmills). Windmills were used throughout the high medieval and early modern periods; the horizontal or panemone windmill first appeared in Persia during the 9th century, and the vertical windmill first appeared in northwestern Europe in the 12th century. (Full article...)

Examples of multi-sailed windmills

Examples of tower mills

General images

The following are images from various wind power-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Windmill in Kuremaa, Estonia (from Windmill)
Image 2The Tafila Wind Farm in Jordan, is the first large scale wind farm in the region. (from Wind farm)
Image 3Don Quixote being struck by a windmill (1863 illustration by Gustave Doré) (from Windmill)
Image 4Part of the Biglow Canyon Wind Farm, Oregon, United States with a turbine under construction (from Wind farm)
Image 5The Australian Canunda Wind Farm, South Australia at sunrise (from Wind farm)
Image 6Gouda Wind Facility, South Africa (from Wind farm)
Image 7South Brooklyn Marine Terminal Wind Turbine (from Wind turbines on public display)
$Image 8Offshore windfarms, including floating windfarms, provide a small but growing fraction of total windfarm power generation. Such power generation capacity must grow substantially to help meet the IEA's Net Zero by 2050 pathway to combat climate change. (from Wind farm)$

Image 8Offshore 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 9Jhimpir Wind Farm, Pakistan (from Wind farm)
Image 10Tower mills in Consuegra, Spain (from Windmill)
Image 11Thorntonbank Wind Farm, using REpower 5M 5 MW turbines in the North Sea off the coast of Belgium (from Wind turbine)
Image 12Map of available wind power over the United States - colour codes indicate wind power density class (from Wind farm)
Image 13San Gorgonio Pass wind farm, California (from Wind farm)
Image 14Workers inspect wind turbine blades. (from Wind turbine)
Image 15In the U.S. cats kill on the order of 10,000 times as many birds as wind turbines. (from Wind turbine)
Image 16The Persian horizontal windmill, the first practical windmill (from Windmill)
Image 17Nashtifan wind turbines in Sistan, Iran (from Wind turbine)
Image 18Components of a horizontal-axis wind turbine (from Wind turbine)
Image 19Technical drawing of a 1793 Dutch smock mill for land drainage (from Windmill)
Image 20Windmill in Sønderho, Fanø, Denmark. Dutch type, built in 1895. (from Windmill)
Image 21German physicist Albert Betz helped to develop wind turbine technology. Betz's law states that no wind turbine can capture more than 59.3% of the wind's kinetic energy. (from Wind turbine)
Image 22The three primary types: VAWT Savonius, HAWT towered; VAWT Darrieus as they appear in operation (from Wind turbine)
Image 23Wind farm in Xinjiang, China (from Wind farm)
Image 24Offshore wind turbines near Copenhagen, Denmark (from Wind farm)
Image 25An isometric drawing of the machinery of the Beebe Windmill (from Windmill)
Image 26Wind turbines in the Bahrain World Trade Center (from Wind turbine)
Image 27A windmill in Wales, United Kingdom. 1815. (from Windmill)
Image 28Windshaft, brake wheel, and brake blocks in smock mill d'Admiraal in Amsterdam (from Windmill)
Image 29Wind turbine for power generation by Josef Friedlaender, Vienna in 1883 (from Wind turbine)
Image 30Northern Iowa wind farm (from Wind farm)
Image 31Two smock mills with a stage in Greetsiel, Germany (from Windmill)
Image 32Development in size and power of wind turbines, 1990–2016 (from Wind turbine)
Image 33Kiosk at the base of the Lamma Winds Nordex N50/800kW wind turbine on Lamma Island, Hong Kong, with displays showing current power output and cumulative energy produced (from Wind turbines on public display)
Image 34A turbine blade convoy passing through Edenfield, England (from Wind turbine)
Image 35The Nordex N50 wind turbine and visitor centre of Lamma Winds in Hong Kong, China (from Wind turbine)
Image 36Interior view, Pantigo windmill, East Hampton, New York Historic American Buildings Survey (from Windmill)
Image 37Hooper's Mill, Margate, Kent, an eighteenth-century European horizontal windmill (from Windmill)
Image 38Wind farm interference (in yellow circle) on radar map (from Wind farm)
Image 39The Hancock County wind energy center in Iowa (from Wind turbines on public display)
Image 40The first automatic wind turbine, built in Cleveland in 1887 by Charles F. Brush (from Wind turbine)
Image 411813 technical drawing (from Windmill)
Image 42A small Quietrevolution QR5 Gorlov-type vertical-axis wind turbine on top of the Bristol Beacon 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)
Image 43The Pubnico Wind Farm taken from Beach Point, Lower East Pubnico, Nova Scotia (from Wind farm)
Image 44Diagram of the smock mill at Meopham, Kent (from Windmill)
Image 45A wind farm in a mountainous area in Galicia, Spain (from Wind farm)
Image 465-sail Holgate windmill in York, England (from Windmill)
Image 47Éole, the largest vertical-axis wind turbine, in Cap-Chat, Quebec, Canada (from Wind turbine)
Image 48A 19th-century reconstruction of Heron's wind-powered organ (from Windmill)
Image 49De Valk windmill in mourning position following the death of Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands in 1962 (from Windmill)
Image 50Oilmill De Zoeker, paintmill De Kat and paltrok sawmill De Gekroonde Poelenburg at the Zaanse Schans (from Windmill)
Image 51A vertical axis wind turbine design by Fausto Veranzio, c. 1600 (from Wind turbine)
Image 52Roscoe Wind Farm, an onshore wind farm, in West Texas (from Wind farm)
Image 53Nacelle of a wind turbine (from Wind turbine)
Image 54Egbert Lievensz van der Poel, Windmill Fire (17th century), National Museum in Kraków (from Windmill)
Image 55Inside view of a wind turbine tower, showing the tendon cables (from Wind turbine)
Image 56Windmill in the Azores islands, Portugal (from Windmill)
Image 57An aerial view of Whitelee Wind Farm, the largest onshore wind farm in the UK and second-largest in Europe (from Wind farm)
Image 58James Blyth's electricity-generating wind turbine, 1891 (from Wind turbine)
Image 59Cross section of a post mill (from Windmill)
Image 60The 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)
Image 61A wind farm overlooking Bada Bagh, India (from Wind farm)
Image 62The San Gorgonio Pass wind farm in California, United States (from Wind farm)
Image 63A windmill in Kotka, Finland in May 1987 (from Windmill)
Image 64A vertical-axis twisted-Savonius-type turbine (from Wind turbine)
Image 65Nordex wind turbine manufacturing plant in Jonesboro, Arkansas, United States (from Wind turbine)

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v t e Wind power
Wind power	Airborne wind energy By country History Land vehicles Offshore Turbines on public display Windmill panemone
Wind farms	Lists of wind farms Community-owned Offshore farms Onshore farms
Wind turbines	Aerodynamics Airborne Crosswind kite Design Floating Nacelle Pitch bearing QBlade Small Unconventional Vertical-axis Savonius Darrieus Yaw system bearing drive
Wind power industry	Consulting companies Manufacturers Software
Manufacturers	Dongfang Electric Enercon Envision GE Wind including GE Offshore Wind Goldwind Ming Yang Nordex SANY Siemens Gamesa Suzlon Vestas Windey
Concepts	2020s in wind power research Betz's law Blade element momentum theory Capacity factor Energy return on investment Energy storage grid Energy subsidy HVDC Hybrid power Laddermill Net energy gain Tip-speed ratio Variable renewable energy Virtual power plant Wind power forecasting Wind profile power law Log wind profile Wind resource assessment
Wind power portal Category Commons Additional portals: Renewable energy Energy

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