The energy of wind has been exploited for thousands of years. The oldest applications of wind energy include extracting water from wells, making flour out of grain,andother agricultural applications. In recent times, the use of wind energy has evolved to, primarily, generation of electricity. The field of wind energy blossomed in 1970s after the oil crisis, with a large infusion of research money in the United States, Denmark, and Germany to find alternative sources of energy. By the early 1980s, incentives for alternative sources of energy had vanished in the United States and, therefore, the wind energy field shrank significantly. Investments continued in Europe and, until recently, Europe led in terms of technology and wind capacity installations. The data presented in this section is from the World Wind Energy Report 2009 by theWorldWind Energy Association. According to this report, in 2009, wind energy was a 50 billion Euro business in terms of revenue and it employed about 550,000 people around the world.






