New Books in Technology Marianna Dudley, "Electric Wind: An Energy History of Modern Britain by Marianna Dudley" (Manchester UP, 2025)
Mar 14, 2026
Marianna Dudley, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Humanities and author of Electric Wind, maps Britain’s windy past from Cornish coasts to Orkney tests. She discusses 19th-century wind experiments, meteorology’s role, state projects versus grassroots activism, privatization’s market shifts, offshore complexities, and community ownership debates. Short, vivid stories trace how wind and society shaped each other.
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How Electric Wind Was Born From Old Wind and New Electricity
- Modern electric wind emerged by combining 19th-century wind technology with new electrical science rather than as an alternative to fossil fuels.
- Inventors like William Blythe and Charles Brush grafted windmills to electrical systems, creating early electric wind experiments separate from large coal and steam networks.
Meteorology Was Essential To Harnessing Wind
- Understanding wind required meteorological science because wind is unpredictable and behaves differently over land than at sea.
- Britain conducted a national wind survey mid-20th century to map upland and coastal wind regimes, crucial for siting turbines.
Orkney's 1951 Turbine Proved Wind Could Feed A Grid
- Orkney hosted a 100 kW grid-connected turbine in 1951 because surveys showed it was Britain's windiest region where an island grid could be tested.
- A 1952 storm broke records and stressed the turbine, proving potential but exposing maintenance limits.
