Winds' of change

CLIMATE CHANGE SERIES

- Krishna Gupta

In the fight against the challenges posed by global warming and climate change, wind power holds an important position. Along with solar, it provides a popular and flexible source of renewable energy. Interestingly, wind power is not new and has been in use for thousands of years. China and Persia have been known to use windmills in the era before Christ. In the Middle Ages, it was the Dutch who were the early leaders, using wind power to drain marshes and grind grain. In the 19th and 20th century, many countries including the UK, Denmark, the US and Russia established wind farms. However, fossil fuels proved to be more cost-effective, and wind power was soon sidelined. The oil crisis of the 1970s pushed countries towards renewables, and more recently, wind power has again become popular because of the move away from fossil fuels due to global warming.

Wind power: a growing sector