New kinds of wind turbine
are being invented which
have no propellers!Groups of wind
turbines are called
wind farms.China is the world‘s largest
producer of wind energy and
can produce more energy
than all the nuclear power
plants in the USA.
FUN FACTS
500 AD
HARNESSING THE WIND
In ancient Persia, almost 2,000 years ago,
people began using wind power to pump
water! The evidence is found in a place
called Nashtifan in Iran. Reeds were woven
into “mats” that were then used as ver tical
paddles, arranged like ships’ sails that would
spin like a merr y-go-round in the wind,
turning a turbine that would pump the water.
These clever Persians are also credited with
being the first people to use the wind to
power their grain mills.
However, many claim that windmills
were invented in China, and while this may
be true, the earliest documentation of a
Chinese windmill is from 1219 AD.
By the late 1800s, more than 200 years
ago, wind was being used around the world
to power industries on a large scale.29
03/2015