The world has never been short of wind. For thousands of years, it has turned windmills, flown kites, cooled houses and filled sails. Now, technological advances are breathing new life into our use of wind power as a clean, renewable, cost-effective means of generating electricity.
             Over the last few decades, wind power has rarely been used as a means of generating electricity. In 1996, the worldwide capacity of wind turbines was approximately 6 gigawatts, contributing less than 1 percent to the total global electrical generation capacity. However, the wind energy industry is continually growing at a rapid rate. Much of the growth is in European countries such as Holland, Denmark, the United Kingdom, and Germany. Denmark, for example, currently obtains about 5 percent of its electricity from wind turbines and aims to increase this to 40 percent by 2030. Interest in wind power is also rapidly growing in countries such as India and China, while Australia is also beginning to pay increasing attention to the concept. Renewable energy (such as wind energy) currently provides about 10.5 percent of Australia's electricity generation. Still, Australia has plans for further supply from renewable energy sources, but this depends upon legislation, which will commit electricity suppliers to use an additional 2 percent of their electricity from renewable energy sources by 2010. Interest in wind energy has grown significantly in the past few years.
             There are probably two main reasons for the increasing interest in wind power. First, most electricity generated today uses non-renewable fuels such as coal, oil, and gas. These contribute vast quantities of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, which cause an enhanced greenhouse effect, leading to a warming of the Earth's atmosphere. Also, since wind is a renewable resource, it can not 'run out,' so eliminating the possibility of the electrical industry being forced to discover and util...