The power of the wind has been harnessed for energy generation throughout human history. At first purely as mechanical energy for the milling of grains (windmills), then for storing potential energy (water pumping windmills), and finally for generating electricity (wind turbines). 

The first electricity-generating wind turbine was built in 1887, by Scottish electrical engineer James Blyth, in the garden of his holiday cottage, portrayed in this 1891 image. The electricity generated would go into charge accumulators and then be used to power the lights in the cottage. To find a use for the surplus electricity, James Blyth tried to sell it to the neighboring town, nearly creating a microgrid. However, the town refused, as people believed that electricity was "the work of the devil". 

Nonetheless James Blyth paved the way for the adoption of wind turbines as electric generators. In 2020, wind energy was the second largest renewable energy source worldwide, after hydropower.