人类利用风能的历史可以追溯到公元前，但数千年来，风能技术发展缓慢，没有引起人们足够的重视。但自1973年世界石油危机以来，在

　　人类利用风能的历史可以追溯到公元前，但数千年来，风能技术发展缓慢，没有引起人们足够的重视。但自1973年世界石油危机以来，在常规能源告急和全球生态环境恶化的双重压力下，风能作为新能源的一部分才重新有了长足的发展。风能作为一种无污染和可再生的新能源有着巨大的发展潜力，特别是对沿海岛屿、交通不便的边远山区、地广人稀的草原牧场，以及远离电网和近期内电网还难以达到的农村、边疆，作为解决生产和生活能源的一种可靠途径，有着十分重要的意义。即使在发达国家，风能作为一种高效清洁的新能源也日益受到重视。 　　我国位于亚洲大陆东南，濒临太平洋西岸，季风强盛。全国风力资源的总储量为每年16亿千瓦，近期可开发的约为1.6亿千瓦，内蒙古、青海、黑龙江、甘肃等省风能储量居我国前列。

Mankind’s use of wind energy can be traced back to the time before Jesus Christ was born. But the technology of using wind energy developed very slowly and people have not attached enough importance to it. However, since the world oil crisis in 1973 and under the double pressure of near exhaustion of conventional energy resources and the deterioration of the global ecosystem, the technology of the use of wind energy has undergone remarkable development. As a kind of non-pollution and regenerative energy resource, wind energy has great potential for further development, and is of special significance as a surest route to solve energy problems for life and production in coastal islands, remote mountainous areas with inconvenient transportation, sparsely populated pastureland, and other rural areas and border regions far from electric networks or where electric network will not reach in the near future. It is assuming greater significance even in developed countries as a new clean and highly efficient energy resource. 　　China is situated in the southeast of the Asian continent, facing the Pacific Ocean to her east, where the monsoon is very strong. The total annual reserves of wind energy of the country is as high as 1.6 billion kw, of which 160 million kw can be developed in the near future, and that in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Qinghai Province, Heilongjiang Province, and Gansu Province ranks top among China’s provinces.