Poul la Cour's Askov wind turbine
Aerogenerador de Poul la Cour en Askov
- Date
- 1891 · confidence high
- Place
- Askov, Vejen, Denmark
- Credited to
- Poul la Cour
- Field
- Matter & energy
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
La Cour built an experimental wind turbine at the Askov folk high school in 1891 that produced electricity, and in 1897 one of the first wind tunnels for studying blades. He stored the energy as hydrogen by electrolysis to light the school.
It was not the first wind turbine: James Blyth (Scotland, July 1887) and Charles Brush (USA, 1887-1888) had generated electricity from wind. La Cour contributed the experimental method and the application network.
What it led to
- about 120 Danish rural wind plants around 1918
- aerodynamic studies of fast blades with few blades
- the Danish wind tradition (Gedser, Vestas)