ABSTRACT

Although wind energy had a long history in the United States, by the 1960s it appeared that wind energy was no longer relevant. At that time fossil fuels were cheap and plentiful and nuclear power was “too cheap to meter”. Unnoticed by many, however, the seeds for wind energy’s renaissance were already germinating. As of 1956, M. K. Hubbert was already predicting that oil’s days were numbered. With the publication of Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring in 1962 many people became aware of the environmental consequences of industrial development. By 1970, the first Earth Day reflected the beginning of the new awareness. As it turned out the University of Massachusetts in Amherst (UMass) provided one the fields where some of these seeds took root.