Wind has been utilized to complete tasks for thousands of years. It has been used to propel sailboats, grind grains, and even fly kites (Povey 57). Today, we are looking to harvest the power of wind to create electrical energy. This task can be achieved in a few different ways. First, the use of a few turbines to supply a house or industrial building with electricity is the common way that northern European countries have deployed their wind power (Gipe 19). These clusters power localized needs as well as supporting the power grid. The second method is how the majority of the United States generates its power: large scale wind farms. These farms are financially more profitable. However, the power grid is subjected to greater issues when there isn’t enough wind blowing, because of the centralized nature of the plants. If supplemented by a variable power source wind can be very useful to stretch current finite resources stockpiles or support future power generation. Unfortunately, the only source currently able to fill the energy demands of developed nations has been fossil fuel plants such as natural gas and coal. This need for a reserve source of energy through power-plants is a significant drawback to large scale wind. The northern Europeans can avoid this problem by having their turbines spread over a larger area, if the wind isn’t blowing in one area, another area picks up the slack. The final useful application of wind energy is for remote site electrical generation. Small wind turbines are a compact and useful way to generate electricity in areas that don’t have access to fuels or power lines. If we combined the abilities of wind power with solar power, this type of need is well met. A turbine is quickly and easily set up on a remote site to power sensors, computers, etc. (Povey 57). The other benefit is that it can easily be taken down if necessary and used in another location.