British Experiments With Wind-Generated Power

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 89, 1 September 1948, Page 4

British Experiments With Wind-Generated Power

In. their efforts to solve electric power problems arid end cuts, British experts are busy on experiments which may lead to the largescale use of electricity-producing windmills. A survey, showing how windmillsupplied current is able to maintain isolated farms and small communities, has already been completed. Analyses of Britain’s wind statistics, and of the energy obtained from various types of windmill-genera-tors have also been drawn up. Npw a committee of scientists, engineers, meteorologists and Government representatives is backing, the work' being started at. a new wind-power research station. Britain first showed active interest in the subject soon after World War I. In 1924,- Oxford University’s agricultural built an -assortment of windmills, with all sizes of sails and varying from ten feet to' sixty feet in heights By observing their .performances, relative costs .and eriergy-output .were estimated; - ' " ' . It was decided that small thills on tall towers, were the most economical; it was found that even a tree or telegraph poles could interfere with full use of the wind, and the importance of storage batteries —to keep supplies going during windless weather—was duly stressed. Britain’s new body of experts, at present surveying the country’s most wind-swept areas, may evolve an entirely new type of super-wind-mill, designed solely for the purpose of helping out power stations.