“uåX˜äŠÊ˜·³Ç

"Wind energy is here to stay," says Paul Smulders from the Technical University of Eindhoven in an interview with Dutch magazine 'De Ingenieur' (The Engineer). Reflecting on the history of wind, he describes the 1960s as a "black hole" of research. "We had to fall back on literature from the forties and early fifties to find something about wind turbines," he said. That will not happen again, Smulders believes. Wind energy is too important for future energy supply to see it disappear again into a dusty backroom of the university. "Although in my opinion Dutch universities should do more," he adds. Smulders became one of the godfathers of small scale wind energy around the world, specializing in wind water pumping -- a particularly Dutch way of using the wind. Smulders recently retired.