The utilisation of wind energy has been practised for many hundred years. Wind energy systems disappeared when fossil fuel was cheap, everywhere available and easy in application. With higher fuel prices and reduced energy resources wind energy becomes interesting again for many applications. In almost all coastal regions where mean annual wind speed exceeds 5 m/s the utilisation of wind energy is promising. The applications range from small size (some kW) water pumping stations at low rotational speed up to large size (several MW) electricity generating wind energy converters at high rotational speed. Well designed systems should be able to achieve 25–30% annual electrical efficiency, which is an excellent value compared to other systems using regenerative energy or fossil energy. This promises that in a few years wind energy systems can be economically interesting. Small systems in the range up to several 10 kW will be ready for the market in the near future, large systems in the MW-size still need considerable experimental effort. In some countries developing programmes have been initiated. The positive outlook of wind energy applications justifies a considerable intensification of these programmes.