Portal:Wind power

The Wind Power Portal

The Gansu Wind Farm in Gansu, China

Wind power is the use of wind energy to generate useful work. Historically, wind power was used by sails, windmills and windpumps, but today it is mostly used to generate electricity. This article deals only with wind power for electricity generation. Today, wind power is generated almost completely using wind turbines, generally grouped into wind farms and connected to the electrical grid.

In 2024, wind supplied over 2,494 TWh of electricity, which was 8.1% of world electricity. With about 100 GW added during 2021, mostly in China and the United States, global installed wind power capacity exceeded 800 GW. 30 countries generated more than a tenth of their electricity from wind power in 2024 and wind generation has nearly tripled since 2015. To help meet the Paris Agreement goals to limit climate change, analysts say it should expand much faster – by over 1% of electricity generation per year. (Full article...)

Selected article -

Alta Wind Energy Center (AWEC), also known as Mojave Wind Farm, is the third largest onshore wind energy project in the world. The Alta Wind Energy Center is a wind farm located in Tehachapi Pass of the Tehachapi Mountains, in Kern County, California. As of 2022, it is the largest wind farm in the United States, with a combined installed capacity of 1,550 MW (2,080,000 hp). The project, being developed near Tehachapi Pass Wind Farm— site of the first large-scale wind farms installed in the U.S. in the 1970s and 1980s—is "a powerful illustration of the growing size and scope of modern wind projects".

Southern California Edison has agreed to a 25-year power purchase agreement for the power produced as part of the power purchase agreements for up to 1500 MW or more of power generated from new projects to be built in the Tehachapi area. The project will "reduce carbon dioxide emissions by more than 5.2 million metric tons, which is equivalent to taking 446,000 cars off the road". A total of 3000 MW is planned. (Full article...)

List of selected articles

General windmill articles


  • Ta' Kola Windmill in 2017

    Ta' Kola Windmill, Maltese: Il-Mitħna ta' Kola, is a windmill in the village of Xagħra, on the island of Gozo in the Maltese archipelago. It was built in 1725 by the Fondazione Vilhena of Grand Master Manoel de Vilhena, and was rebuilt in the 1780s. It became a museum in 1992.

    Like many other Maltese windmills, it has a round central tower surrounded by a number of rooms. The sails and milling machinery have been restored, as have the miller's living-quarters. The museum also contains a large collection of traditional tools, mostly for wood- and iron-working. (Full article...)

  • This is a list of large wind farms in the United States. Many of the wind farms in the United States are located in the Great Plains. (Full article...)

  • The List of windmills is a link page for any windmill or windpump. (Full article...)
  • There are 19 operational wind farms in Latvia with capacity above 0.25 MW and 18 wind farms with capacity below 0.25 MW. (Full article...)

  • Old Buckenham Windmill

    Old Buckenham Windmill is a tower flour mill which stands in the village of Old Buckenham, Norfolk, England. It is a Grade II* listed building, notable for being the largest diameter windmill in the country.

    The tower was built in 1818 of brick in five storeys and is 8 meters (26.5 feet) in diameter at the base. The cap was boat shaped and extended to the rear. At 7.3 meters (24 feet) in diameter, it was the largest known cap in the country, requiring five truck wheels and 17 centring wheels to carry the weight. Originally fitted with eight plain sails, it was converted to use four patent sails. There were five pairs of French stones on the second floor but milling at the mill ceased in 1926 and the stones were broken up. (Full article...)
  • Greenhill Windmill is a traditional masonry tower windmill, built in 1856 at Greenhill Farm near Kyneton, Victoria, Australia.

    Joseph Hall (1804-21 August 1871) and William Hoad purchased thirty hectares of farm land located on Metcalfe Road, Green Hill, at the original Crown sales in 1855. The following year they erected the windmill, using bluestone quarried on their property. (Full article...)

  • Wind rights are rights relating to windmills, wind turbines and wind power. Historically in Continental Europe wind rights were manorial rights and obligations relating to the operation and profitability of windmills. In modern times, as wind becomes a more important source of power, rights relating to wind turbines and windmills are sometimes referred to as "wind rights". (Full article...)

  • The Alexander & Anna Schwartz Farm, located at 57 E. Rd. 70 in Dighton, Kansas, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2014.

    It includes three buildings (a house built c.1928, a barn, and a smokehouse/cellar) and an Aermotor windmill. The house is built of structural hollow clay tile, also known as structural terra cotta. (Full article...)

  • This is a list of wind farms in the Republic of Ireland. Locations of all the wind farms which have coordinates below, may be seen on a map together by clicking "Map of all coordinates using OpenStreetMap" at the right side of this page. (Full article...)

  • This is a list of some onshore wind farms (more than one turbine) in the UK. This information is gathered from multiple Internet sources, primarily the UK Wind Energy Database from RenewableUK (formerly BWEA) and The Wind Power's database. There are many operational wind farms missing from the list, such as Scotland's 522 MW Clyde Wind Farm and the 68 MW Keadby Wind Farm in North Lincolnshire, England's largest onshore wind farm. The name of the wind farm is the name used by the energy company when referring to the farm and is usually related to the name of the physical location, e.g. hill, moor, fell, down etc. or the name of the agricultural farm for the smaller installations on property owned by farmers. The "wind farm" part is implied and hence removed for clarity in most cases. Listings here are restricted to wind farms with 12 turbines or more; for a more comprehensive list, please see the individual country articles. (Full article...)

  • South Africa produced around 245,000 GWh of electricity in 2021. Most of this electricity is produced using coal and is consumed domestically. In 2022, 12,300 GWh were exported to Eswatini, Botswana, Mozambique, Lesotho, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe and other countries participating in the Southern African Power Pool. In 2022, South Africa imported 10,800 GWh from the Cahora Bassa Hydroelectric Power Station in Mozambique via the 1,920 MW Cahora Bassa (HDVC) Power Transmission System.

    Most power stations in South Africa are owned and operated by the state owned enterprise,Eskom. These plants account for 86% of all the electricity produced in South Africa and ~20% of all electricity produced on the African continent. In terms of share of GDP in 2012, South Africa was the 4th largest investor in renewable power in the world after Uruguay, Mauritius and Costa Rica. (Full article...)

  • As of 2021, there are at least eight operational wind power plants at Ibrahimyah, Hofa, Maan Hussania & Tafila. The Ibrahimyah plant, located approximately 80 km north of Amman, consists of 4 wind turbines with capacity 0.08 MW for each. The Hofa plant, located approximately 92 km north of Amman, consists of 5 wind turbines with capacity 0.225 MW for each. The Tafila Wind Farm is located in Tafilah Governorate in southwest Jordan. In Maan there are two Wind Farms. Maan Wind Farm was inaugurated in 2016 in south Jordan with a capacity of 80 MW, and Rajef Wind Farm reached the commercial Operation Date by October 2018, with a capacity of 86 MW. The 89MW Fujeij wind farm developmed and owend by KEPCO reached commercial operation date in October 2019. The Abour Energy wind farm developed by AMEA and Xenel industries reached commercial operation date (COD) in July 2021. The Daehan Wind Farm, developed by a joint venture of DL Energy and KOSPO also reached COD in July 2021. (Full article...)


  • This is a list of operational, offshore wind farms in Sweden (within the national maritime boundaries).

    This information is gathered from multiple Internet sources, and commercial sources.
    The name of the wind farm is the name used by the energy company when referring to the farm and is usually related to a shoal or the name of the nearest town on shore. The "wind farm" part is implied and hence removed for clarity. (Full article...)

  • Maud Foster Mill, January 2008

    Maud Foster Windmill is a seven-storey, five sail windmill located by the Maud Foster Drain in Skirbeck, Boston, Lincolnshire, from which she is named. She is one of the largest operating windmills in England being 80 feet (24.38 m) tall to the cap ball.

    The tower mill and adjoining granary is grade I listed building. The mill was built in 1819 for Isaac and Thomas Reckitt of Wainfleet. It was repaired and restored in 1988. (Full article...)
  • Windmills are powered by their sails. Sails are found in different forms, from primitive common sails to the advanced patent sails. (Full article...)

  • The Wendhausen Windmill (German: Windmühle Wendhausen) is a tower mill located in Wendhausen, a town within the municipality of Lehre, Lower Saxony, Germany. Built in 1837, it is the only five-sailed windmill in Germany still in operation. (Full article...)

  • This glossary of mill machinery covers the major pieces of machinery to be found in windmills, watermills and horse mills. It does not cover machinery found in modern factories. (Full article...)

  • Button's Mill, c1911

    Jay's Mill, Button's Mill or Victoria Road Mill is a tower mill at Diss, Norfolk, England which has been truncated and converted to residential accommodation. (Full article...)

  • Mostert's Mill, September 2012

    Mostert's Mill (Afrikaans: Mostert se Meul) is a historic windmill in Mowbray, Cape Town, South Africa. It was built in 1796 and is the oldest surviving complete windmill in South Africa. It was almost completely destroyed by a wildfire on 18 April 2021 but was fully restored by April 2024 and is once more operational and used to grind wheat into whole meal, using the power of the wind. The oldest windmill in South Africa is the De Nieuwe Molen mill in Cape Town, built in 1782. (Full article...)
  • As of 2016, there were over 160 operational wind farms in Lithuania, but the majority of them consisted of small farms generating less than 2 MW. (Full article...)


  • This article lists the largest offshore wind farms that are currently operational rated by nameplate capacity. It also lists the largest offshore wind farms currently under construction, the largest proposed offshore wind farms, and offshore wind farms with notability other than size.

    As of 2022, Hornsea 2 in the United Kingdom is the largest offshore wind farm in the world at 1,386 MW. (Full article...)


  • Pedersker Kirkemølle is a Dutch windmill located in the little village of Pedersker on the Danish island of Bornholm. It functioned until 1969. (Full article...)

  • Blennerville Windmill

    The Blennerville Windmill is a 21.30 m high, stone, reefing stage, windmill in Blennerville, County Kerry, Ireland. The mill has five floors, ground floor, intermediate floor, grinding floor, stone floor and cap floor. (Full article...)

  • View of the Bourne Windmill 1975

    The Bourne Windmill, Oakdale, New York was an American farm design tower windmill, built in 1911 by Commodore Frederic G Bourne, as part of a farm in Oakdale, New York. It was located north of his South Shore estate, known as Indian Neck Hall, which later became LaSalle Military Academy. The windmill was demolished in 2004–2005. (Full article...)

Topics

Wind power topics
Windmill topics

A windmill is a machine operated by the force of wind acting on vanes or sails to mill grain (gristmills), pump water, generate electricity, or drive other machinery. Windmills were used throughout the high medieval and early modern periods; the horizontal or panemone windmill first appeared in Persia during the 9th century, and the vertical windmill first appeared in northwestern Europe in the 12th century. Regarded as an icon of Dutch culture, there are approximately 1,000 windmills in the Netherlands today. (Full article...)

Examples of multi-sailed windmills

Examples of tower mills

General images

The following are images from various wind power-related articles on Wikipedia.

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