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Wind power is the use of wind energy to generate useful work. Historically, wind power was used by sails, windmills and windpumps, but today it is mostly used to generate electricity. This article deals only with wind power for electricity generation. Today, wind power is generated almost completely with wind turbines, generally grouped into wind farms and connected to the electrical grid.

In 2022, wind supplied over 2,304 TWh of electricity, which was 7.8% of world electricity. With about 100 GW added during 2021, mostly in China and the United States, global installed wind power capacity exceeded 800 GW. 32 countries generated more than a tenth of their electricity from wind power in 2023 and wind generation has nearly tripled since 2015. To help meet the Paris Agreement goals to limit climate change, analysts say it should expand much faster – by over 1% of electricity generation per year. (Full article...)

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A wind farm or wind park, or wind power plant, is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundred wind turbines covering an extensive area. Wind farms can be either onshore or offshore.

Many of the largest operational onshore wind farms are located in China, India, and the United States. For example, the largest wind farm in the world, Gansu Wind Farm in China had a capacity of over 6,000 MW by 2012, with a goal of 20,000 MW by 2020. As of December 2020, the 1218 MW Hornsea Wind Farm in the UK is the largest offshore wind farm in the world. Individual wind turbine designs continue to increase in power, resulting in fewer turbines being needed for the same total output. (Full article...)

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General windmill articles

Image 1
Tjasker Ossenzijl

The tjasker (West Frisian: jasker, German: Fluttermühle) is a small type of windmill used solely for drainage purposes. It is distinctive for its simple construction, featuring only a single inclined shaft that carries the sails on one end and an Archimedes' screw on the other, in this way avoiding the need for any gearing. The tjasker is commonly known as a typical Frisian windmill though it is also found in other Dutch provinces and in north Germany. (Full article...)
Image 2

The mill c.1892

Ringle Crouch Green Mill is a smock mill in Sandhurst, Kent, England, that was demolished to base level in 1945, and now has a new smock tower built on it as residential accommodation and an electricity generator. (Full article...)
$Image 3 This is a list of operational, offshore wind farms in Denmark (within the national maritime boundaries). Denmark's wind power generation is the highest in the world as a fraction of domestic consumption, reaching 47% in 2019. Data is primarily from the 4C Offshore's Global Offshore Wind Farm Map and Database. Tariff data is supplied by the Danish Energy Agency. The name of the Wind Farm is the name used by the Energy Company when referring to the Farm and is usually related to a shoal or the name of the nearest town on shore. The Wind Farm part is implied and hence omitted for ease of reading. (Full article...)$

Image 3
This is a list of operational, offshore wind farms in Denmark (within the national maritime boundaries). Denmark's wind power generation is the highest in the world as a fraction of domestic consumption, reaching 47% in 2019.

Data is primarily from the 4C Offshore's Global Offshore Wind Farm Map and Database. Tariff data is supplied by the Danish Energy Agency. The name of the Wind Farm is the name used by the Energy Company when referring to the Farm and is usually related to a shoal or the name of the nearest town on shore. The Wind Farm part is implied and hence omitted for ease of reading. (Full article...)
Image 4
Worldwide installed capacity (1996–2015)

This is a list of the largest onshore wind farms that are currently operational, rated by generating capacity. Also listed are onshore wind farms with notability other than size, and largest proposed projects. (Full article...)
Image 5

Ta' Kola Windmill in 2017

Ta' Kola Windmill, Maltese: Il-Mitħna ta' Kola, is a windmill in the village of Xagħra, on the island of Gozo in the Maltese archipelago. It was built in 1725 by the Fondazione Vilhena of Grand Master Manoel de Vilhena, and was rebuilt in the 1780s. It became a museum in 1992.

Like many other Maltese windmills, it has a round central tower surrounded by a number of rooms. The sails and milling machinery have been restored, as have the miller's living-quarters. The museum also contains a large collection of traditional tools, mostly for wood- and iron-working. (Full article...)
Image 6
Diagram showing an underdrift windmill

This glossary of mill machinery covers the major pieces of machinery to be found in windmills, watermills and horse mills. It does not cover machinery found in modern factories. (Full article...)
Image 7

The Wendhausen Windmill (German: Windmühle Wendhausen) is a tower mill located in Wendhausen, a town within the municipality of Lehre, Lower Saxony, Germany. Built in 1837, it is the only five-sailed windmill in Germany still in operation. (Full article...)
Image 8
China has the world's largest capacity of offshore wind power, with 25 GW operational as of mid 2022.
Offshore wind in China is growing rapidly, with 16.9 GW added during 2021. (Full article...)
Image 9
Smock mill with fantail (Sønderho, Fanø, Denmark)

The smock mill is a type of windmill that consists of a sloping, horizontally weatherboarded, thatched, or shingled tower, usually with six or eight sides. It is topped with a roof or cap that rotates to bring the sails into the wind. This type of windmill got its name from its resemblance to smocks worn by farmers in an earlier period. (Full article...)
Image 10
The following page lists all the power stations in Sweden. For traction power, see List of installations for 15 kV AC railway electrification in Sweden. (Full article...)
Image 11

Old Mill buildings

The Old Mill (Shenton's Mill) is a restored tower mill located on Mill Point in South Perth, Western Australia. Today, restored to its original 1830s condition, it is one of Perth's best known historic landmarks and serves as a sightseeing attraction. (Full article...)
Image 12
2018 wind farm map

This is a list of large wind farms in the United States. Many of the wind farms in the United States are located in the Great Plains. (Full article...)
Image 13

Mostert's Mill, September 2012

Mostert's Mill (Afrikaans: Mostert se Meul) is a historic windmill in Mowbray, Cape Town, South Africa. It was built in 1796 and is the oldest surviving complete windmill in South Africa. It was almost completely destroyed by a wildfire on 18 April 2021 but was fully restored by April 2024 and is once more operational and used to grind wheat into whole meal, using the power of the wind. The oldest windmill in South Africa is the De Nieuwe Molen mill in Cape Town, built in 1782. (Full article...)
Image 14
Four offshore wind farms are in the Thames Estuary area: Kentish Flats, Gunfleet Sands, Thanet and London Array. The latter was largest in the world.

This article lists the largest offshore wind farms that are currently operational rated by nameplate capacity. It also lists the largest offshore wind farms currently under construction, the largest proposed offshore wind farms, and offshore wind farms with notability other than size.

As of 2022, Hornsea 2 in the United Kingdom is the largest offshore wind farm in the world at 1,386 MW. (Full article...)
Image 15
There are 19 operational wind farms in Latvia with capacity above 0.25 MW and 18 wind farms with capacity below 0.25 MW. (Full article...)
Image 16
Greenhill Windmill is a traditional masonry tower windmill, built in 1856 at Greenhill Farm near Kyneton, Victoria, Australia.

Joseph Hall (1804-21 August 1871) and William Hoad purchased thirty hectares of farm land located on Metcalfe Road, Green Hill, at the original Crown sales in 1855. The following year they erected the windmill, using bluestone quarried on their property. (Full article...)
Image 17

Blennerville Windmill

The Blennerville Windmill is a 21.30 m high, stone, reefing stage, windmill in Blennerville, County Kerry, Ireland. The mill has five floors, ground floor, intermediate floor, grinding floor, stone floor and cap floor. (Full article...)
Image 18
Danish Smock mill from 1895 at Sønderho, Fanø, with fantail

A fantail is a small windmill mounted at right angles to the sails, at the rear of the windmill, and which turns the cap automatically to bring it into the wind. The fantail was patented in 1745 by Edmund Lee, a blacksmith working at Brockmill Forge near Wigan, England, and was perfected on mills around Leeds and Hull towards the end of the 18th century. Fantails are found on all types of traditional windmills and are especially useful where changes in wind direction are frequent. They are more common in England, Denmark and Germany than in other parts of Europe, and are little-known on windmills elsewhere except where English millwrighting traditions were in evidence.

The rotating fantail turns the cap of the windmill via a system of gearing to a toothed rack around the top of the mill tower, or to wheels running on the ground in the case of a post mill. It does so until the fantail sails are oriented parallel to the wind, whereby the wind can no longer move them. When the fantail is oriented parallel to the wind, the main sails are in the optimal perpendicular orientation and produce maximum power. (Full article...)
Image 19
This page is a list of power stations in Japan that are publicly or privately owned. (Full article...)
Image 20

The Alexander & Anna Schwartz Farm, located at 57 E. Rd. 70 in Dighton, Kansas, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2014.

It includes three buildings (a house built c.1928, a barn, and a smokehouse/cellar) and an Aermotor windmill. The house is built of structural hollow clay tile, also known as structural terra cotta. (Full article...)
Image 21
Gudhjem Windmill, Bornholm

Gudhjem Windmill (Danish: Gudhjem Mølle) is located in the village of Gudhjem on the Danish island of Bornholm. With a sail span of 24 metres (79 ft), the Dutch mill is the largest windmill in Denmark. It served from 1893 to 1962 when it was taken out of commission. (Full article...)
Image 22

Old Buckenham Windmill

Old Buckenham Windmill is a tower flour mill which stands in the village of Old Buckenham, Norfolk, England. It is a Grade II* listed building, notable for being the largest diameter windmill in the country.

The tower was built in 1818 of brick in five storeys and is 8 meters (26.5 feet) in diameter at the base. The cap was boat shaped and extended to the rear. At 7.3 meters (24 feet) in diameter, it was the largest known cap in the country, requiring five truck wheels and 17 centring wheels to carry the weight. Originally fitted with eight plain sails, it was converted to use four patent sails. There were five pairs of French stones on the second floor but milling at the mill ceased in 1926 and the stones were broken up. (Full article...)
Image 23

Elphin Windmill is a fully restored 18th-century tower mill in Elphin, County Roscommon, viewed as a rare piece of Irish industrial architectural heritage, and possibly the oldest operational windmill in Ireland. (Full article...)
Image 24
Lists of wind farms include:
- List of onshore wind farms
- List of offshore wind farms
(Full article...)
Image 25
Aarsdale Windmill, Bornholm

Aarsdale Windmill (Danish: Aarsdale Mølle) is a smock windmill located on a hilltop on the southern fringe of Aarsdale, 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) south of Svaneke on the Danish island of Bornholm. Constructed in 1877, it is still in operational condition although it is no longer in regular use. (Full article...)

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Windmill topics

The windmills at Kinderdijk in the village of Kinderdijk, Netherlands is a UNESCO World Heritage Site

A windmill is a structure that converts wind power into rotational energy using vanes called sails or blades, by tradition specifically to mill grain (gristmills), but in some parts of the English-speaking world, the term has also been extended to encompass windpumps, wind turbines, and other applications. The term wind engine is also sometimes used to describe such devices. (Full article...)

Examples of multi-sailed windmills

Examples of tower mills

General images

The following are images from various wind power-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Northern Iowa wind farm (from Wind farm)
Image 2Egbert Livensz van der Poel, Windmill Fire (17th century), National Museum in Kraków (from Windmill)
Image 3De Valk windmill in mourning position following the death of Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands in 1962 (from Windmill)
$Image 4Offshore windfarms, including floating windfarms, provide a small but growing fraction of total windfarm power generation. Such power generation capacity must grow substantially to help meet the IEA's Net Zero by 2050 pathway to combat climate change. (from Wind farm)$

Image 4Offshore windfarms, including floating windfarms, provide a small but growing fraction of total windfarm power generation. Such power generation capacity must grow substantially to help meet the IEA's Net Zero by 2050 pathway to combat climate change. (from Wind farm)
Image 5A wind farm in a mountainous area in Galicia, Spain (from Wind farm)
Image 6Windshaft, brake wheel, and brake blocks in smock mill d'Admiraal in Amsterdam (from Windmill)
Image 7A vertical axis Twisted Savonius type turbine. (from Wind turbine)
Image 8An isometric drawing of the machinery of the Beebe Windmill (from Windmill)
Image 9Éole, the largest vertical axis wind turbine, in Cap-Chat, Quebec, Canada (from Wind turbine)
Image 10Map of available wind power over the United States. Colour codes indicate wind power density class. (from Wind farm)
Image 11Nordex wind turbine manufacturing plant in Jonesboro, Arkansas, United States (from Wind turbine)
Image 12An aerial view of Whitelee Wind Farm, the largest onshore wind farm in the UK and second-largest in Europe (from Wind farm)
Image 13Wind farm interference (in yellow circle) on radar map (from Wind farm)
Image 14Tower mills in Consuegra, Spain (from Windmill)
Image 15The Persian horizontal windmill, the first practical windmill. (from Windmill)
Image 16The Pubnico Wind Farm taken from Beach Point, Lower East Pubnico, Nova Scotia (from Wind farm)
Image 17A turbine blade convoy passing through Edenfield, England (from Wind turbine)
Image 18Nashtifan wind turbines in Sistan, Iran (from Wind turbine)
Image 19The Tafila Wind Farm in Jordan, is the first large scale wind farm in the region. (from Wind farm)
Image 20Diagram of the smock mill at Meopham, Kent (from Windmill)
Image 21Workers inspect wind turbine blades. (from Wind turbine)
Image 22A windmill in Kotka, Finland in May 1987 (from Windmill)
Image 235-sail Holgate windmill in York, England (from Windmill)
Image 24The first automatically operated wind turbine, built in Cleveland in 1887 by Charles F. Brush. It was 60 feet (18 m) tall, weighed 4 tons (3.6 metric tonnes) and powered a 12 kW generator. (from Wind turbine)
Image 251813 technical drawing (from Windmill)
Image 26Aermotor-style windpump in South Dakota, US (from Windmill)
Image 27Components of a horizontal-axis wind turbine (from Wind turbine)
Image 28Don Quixote being struck by a windmill (1863 illustration by Gustave Doré). (from Windmill)
Image 29The windmills at Kinderdijk in the village of Kinderdijk, Netherlands is a UNESCO World Heritage Site (from Windmill)
Image 30A wind farm overlooking Bada Bagh, India (from Wind farm)
Image 31Windmill in Kuremaa, Estonia (from Windmill)
Image 32The Gansu Wind Farm in China is the largest wind farm in the world, with a target capacity of 20,000 MW by 2020. (from Wind farm)
Image 33Offshore wind turbines near Copenhagen, Denmark. (from Wind farm)
Image 34Interior view, Pantigo windmill, East Hampton, New York Historic American Buildings Survey (from Windmill)
Image 35A group of wind turbines in Zhangjiakou, Hebei, China (from Windmill)
Image 36Offshore Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines (HAWTs) at Scroby Sands Wind Farm, England (from Wind turbine)
Image 37Nacelle of a wind turbine (from Wind turbine)
Image 38Two smock mills with a stage in Greetsiel, Germany (from Windmill)
Image 39Kiosk at the base of the Lamma Winds Nordex N50/800kW wind turbine on Lamma Island with displays showing current power output and cumulative energy produced. (from Wind turbines on public display)
Image 40Windmill in the Azores islands, Portugal. (from Windmill)
Image 41The Hancock County wind energy center in Iowa (from Wind turbines on public display)
Image 42Jhimpir Wind Farm, Pakistan (from Wind farm)
Image 43A small Quietrevolution QR5 Gorlov type vertical axis wind turbine in Bristol, England. Measuring 3 m in diameter and 5 m high, it has a nameplate rating of 6.5 kW to the grid. (from Wind turbine)
Image 44Components of a horizontal axis wind turbine (gearbox, rotor shaft and brake assembly) being lifted into position (from Wind turbine)
Image 45Illustration of the wind turbine for power generation erected by Josef Friedlaender at the International Electrical Exhibition in Vienna in 1883 (from Wind turbine)
Image 46A wind turbine in Huikku, Hailuoto, Finland (from Windmill)
Image 47Roscoe Wind Farm, an onshore wind farm, in West Texas (from Wind farm)
Image 48Part of the Biglow Canyon Wind Farm, Oregon, United States with a turbine under construction (from Wind farm)
Image 49San Gorgonio Pass wind farm, California (from Wind farm)
Image 50A windmill in Wales, United Kingdom. 1815. (from Windmill)
Image 51South Brooklyn Marine Terminal Wind Turbine (from Wind turbines on public display)
Image 52Gouda Wind Facility, South Africa (from Wind farm)
Image 53Oilmill De Zoeker, paintmill De Kat and paltrok sawmill De Gekroonde Poelenburg at the Zaanse Schans (from Windmill)
Image 54The Nordex N50 wind turbine and visitor centre of Lamma Winds in Hong Kong, China (from Wind turbine)
Image 55Development in size and power of wind turbines, 1990–2016 (from Wind turbine)
Image 56Thorntonbank Wind Farm, using 5 MW turbines REpower 5M in the North Sea off the coast of Belgium (from Wind turbine)
Image 57The rotor of a gearless wind turbine being set. This particular turbine was prefabricated in Germany, before being shipped to the U.S. for assembly. (from Wind turbine)
Image 58Windpump in far western NSW (from Windmill)
Image 59The three primary types: VAWT Savonius, HAWT towered; VAWT Darrieus as they appear in operation (from Wind turbine)
Image 60The Australian Canunda Wind Farm, South Australia at sunrise (from Wind farm)
Image 61Onshore Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines in Zhangjiakou, Hebei, China (from Wind turbine)
Image 62Wind farm in Xinjiang, China (from Wind farm)
Image 63Hooper's Mill, Margate, Kent, an eighteenth-century European horizontal windmill (from Windmill)
Image 64Inside view of a wind turbine tower, showing the tendon cables (from Wind turbine)
Image 65Technical drawing of a 1793 Dutch smock mill for land drainage (from Windmill)
Image 66A 19th-century reconstruction of Heron's wind-powered organ (from Windmill)
Image 67Cross section of a post mill (from Windmill)
Image 68The San Gorgonio Pass wind farm in California, United States. (from Wind farm)
Image 69James Blyth's electricity-generating wind turbine, photographed in 1891 (from Wind turbine)

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v t e Wind power
Wind power	Airborne wind energy By country History Land vehicles Offshore Turbines on public display Windmill panemone
Wind farms	Lists of wind farms Community-owned Offshore farms Onshore farms
Wind turbines	Aerodynamics Airborne Crosswind kite Design Floating Nacelle Pitch bearing QBlade Small Unconventional Vertical-axis Savonius Darrieus Yaw system bearing drive
Wind power industry	Consulting companies Manufacturers Software
Manufacturers	Enercon GE Wind including GE Offshore Wind Goldwind Nordex Senvion Siemens Gamesa Suzlon Vestas
Concepts	2020s in wind power research Betz's law Blade element momentum theory Capacity factor Energy return on investment Energy storage grid Energy subsidy HVDC Hybrid power Laddermill Net energy gain Tip-speed ratio Variable renewable energy Virtual power plant Wind power forecasting Wind profile power law Wind resource assessment
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