The first person to hoist a sail predates recorded history; humans have been harnessing the wind for thousands of years. Nevertheless, when the first windmill was first used to produce electricity 1887, it was immediately rejected as the work of the devil. Scottish professor James Blyth installed the turbine in his garden and used it to power his own home. When he offered the surplus energy to his neighbors, they dismissed it out of hand — he got a better response from a nearby asylum, who agreed to install a turbine on their grounds. His own windmills were dismantled and largely forgotten after his death.

It was a grim start to the industry, and although wind energy has faced the normal uphill battle for any emerging technology, advancing peripatetically against financial and regulatory

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