Wind energy conversion: Recent progress and future prospects

Abstract The wind energy resource is very large and widely distributed, and considerable progress has been made since 1973 in the development of reliable and cost-effective wind turbines; these are now available commercially with rated outputs up to about 500 kW, and at a cost, of about $1000 per kW (peak). In many locations these wind turbines can deliver energy at a competitive cost, and more than 8000 have been installed in the past four years, with an installed capacity exceeding 600 MW. The next decade will see continuing rapid growth in the use of wind turbines for a wide variety of applications, ranging from kilowatt-scale systems for water pumping, rural electricity and telecommunications, up to multi-megawatt wind farms providing electricity to national utility systems.