Clean, renewable and making a big contribution!
Windmills have powered equipment used for grinding grain for hundreds of years, the first evidence showing Persia (now part of Iran) as developing the first simple towers. The UK is also no stranger to harnessing the energy from this natural and renewable resource, with evidence of windmills in England dating back to the 12th century. In 1887 Professor James Blyth built the first windmill in the UK for production of electricity, allegedly successful enough to power his own home for 20 years.
Despite developments and experiments globally, it would be many years before the first successful commercial wind farm would be built in the USA, although small scale turbines were common place for generating power for homesteads and ranches across America.
As concerns about energy supplies continues, we should take comfort in the fact that the one thing the UK is never really short of, has this month, provided a new record for supplying energy. In early December, 43% of British homes were powered from energy sourced through wind farms. Compared to other sources of energy, such as gas extraction or nuclear power generation, around 61% of people would be more receptive to the presence of a wind turbine within 5 miles of their home (recent research for the Energy Institute.)
On shore…
High on a hill…
The first commercial wind farm built on UK soil was commissioned in 1991 in Delabole, Cornwall. It and further installations work so well because of the excellent wind resource available, the best in Europe. It’s cost effective, clean and productive. A modern turbine on a reasonable site within a commercial scale of 2.5MW will generate 6.5 million units of electricity a year. Little wonder that support for on shore wind farms continues to grow with small and medium turbines used to power homes, farms and businesses. Even more good news – we have many leading turbine manufacturers and developers right here in the UK and for every turbine installed since 2005, another one has been exported. 
Or off…
In deep water…
Since 2008 the UK has been the world leader in off shore wind with its current installation capacity equal to that of the rest of the world combined. The first installation was in Blyth harbour in the North East of England in 2000.
Since then several rounds of licencing, co-ordinated by the Crown Estate landlord and owner of the seabed no less, have taken place resulting in 18 sites in England and Wales almost complete. It’s a long process with this first round commencing in 2001. The second round was launched in 2003 – much larger and further off shore and consisting of three strategic areas, The Greater Wash, Greater Thames and the Irish Sea. Round three released four years ago is the largest to date and will have nine zones around the UK. Scotland and Northern Ireland are also included in a further programme of development.