Wind power and rural modernization: wind-powered water supply systems in northern Germany and southern France, 1880–1950

ABSTRACT The article analyzes mechanical wind-powered water supply systems situated in southern France and northern Germany in the time period between 1880 and 1950, when wind energy was not yet framed as a renewable, but as a rural, decentralized, and manageable solution to generate energy. Using a local approach, I highlight wind energy use in rural areas of Western societies as part of the non-synchronical process of technological modernization that unfolded at the same time as electrification, industrialization, and the implementation of large technological systems. I develop my argument in two steps. First, I provide the micro-historical case studies to examine socio-technological contexts that motivated people to advocate for the use of wind energy in times of electrification and industrialization. Second, I show the connection to general and specific contemporary discourses about wind energy and energy futures in order to provide evidence that the wind projects were part of rural modernization processes.