U.S. CENSUS BUREAU
U.S. Census Bureau Daily Feature for October 19: Wind Power

Following is the daily "Profile America" feature from the U.S. Census Bureau:

WIND POWER

Profile America -- Wednesday, October 19th.  Throughout the decades since the oil embargo of 1973, increasing research and development has gone into renewable sources of energy. Some of the results are seen atop windswept hills and plains across America -- large electricity generating windmills. The first practical wind turbine generator goes back 75 years. It was on this date in 1941 that Palmer Putnam of Vermont demonstrated his device. His wind turbine had blades 66 feet in length, and in over 700 hours of operation, produced almost 300,000-kilowatt hours. In the U.S. today, there are nearly 2,800 electric power-generating establishments producing 4.1 terawatt hours. The 49,000 wind turbines in the U.S. account for 4.7 percent of the country's electricity production. Profile America is in its 20th year as a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau.

Sources:

Kane's Famous First Facts, 3557

Putnam's windmill/accessed 7/28/2016: http://ethw.org/Palmer_Putnam%27s_1.5_MW_Wind_Turbine

Electric power generating establishments/NAICS 22111: http://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/BP/2014/00A1//naics~22111

Electric power generated nationally/accessed 7/28/2016: http://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.cfm?t=epmt_1_01

Wind turbines/accessed 7/28/2016 http://www.awea.org/Resources/Content.aspx?ItemNumber=5059&navItemNumber=742

Percent of electricity generation/accessed 7/28/2016:  https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=427&t=3

Profile America is produced by the Center for New Media and Promotion of the U.S. Census Bureau. Statistics and accounts drawn from cited non-Census sources are employed for illustrative or narrative purposes, and are not attested to by the U.S. Census Bureau. These daily features are available as produced segments, ready to air, on the Internet at http://www.census.gov (look for "Audio" in the "Library" pull-down menu).