Who thought that wind power plants were breakthrough energy innovation ? The wind is traditionally used to crush grain and pump water, so why not use it to generate electricity ? 100 years ago, two americans engineers have already thought of it.
Marcellus and Joe Jacobs developed the first wind turbine sold commercially for electricity generation in 1928.The two brothers started looking at decentralized energy devices in the 1920s, first for their farm. Using their experience as farmers, they knew that a lot of isolated farms could not be electrified without using gas generators.Those were too costly and not practical for most of the farms, because loose gas had to be transported on large distances.
In 1928, the Jacobs Wind Electric company was founded and the first factory was created in Minneapolis in 1932. Between 1928 and 1957, the company sold more than 30,000 units. The american landscape changes : a new kind of tree grows there.
