Modern three-blade wind turbine
Aerogenerador moderno de tres palas
- Date
- 1957-1979 · confidence high
- Place
- Gedser, Denmark (1957); Vestas, Lem, Denmark (1979)
- Credited to
- Johannes Juul (Gedser turbine); Tvind and Vestas (industrialisation, 1978-1979)
- People
- 👤 Johannes Juul1887–1969
- Field
- Matter & energy
What it is
A horizontal-axis turbine with three upwind blades and an asynchronous generator, the so-called Danish concept. It is the design of almost every wind turbine in the world, now with blades over 100 m long.
What it led to
- Wind power as the world's second-largest renewable source and the Danish and Chinese industries
- Offshore wind farms
- The energy transition and the intermittency that requires batteries and grid upgrades
Built on
- Persian vertical-axis windmillc. century IX
- First electricity-generating wind turbine (Blyth)1887
- Poul la Cour's Askov wind turbine1891
- Smith-Putnam 1.25 MW wind turbine1941
- asynchronous generator
- aviation aerodynamics
Made possible
- First offshore wind farm (Vindeby)1991
- Grid-scale battery storage (Hornsdale Power Reserve)2017
- offshore wind power
- glass- and carbon-fibre blades
- smart grids