The International Energy Agency (IEA) was formed as a result of the 1973 oil crisis to provide a means whereby member countries could co-ordinate their energy policies to ensure long term mutual safeguards to continuity of supply.

Wind has been recognised for some time as one of the most promising ‘renewable’ sources of energy, and considerable development and commercialisation of the technology has taken place in recent years. There is in addition growing concern about carbon dioxide emissions and the detrimental effects which result from burning fossil fuels on our planet.

The IEA has been active in encouraging interaction within wind technology, and has sponsored two major programmes, one (IEA LS WECS) has supported development of large machines, whilst the other (IEA R&D WECS) has encouraged more generic research. As part of this latter programme, a project was set in motion in 1985 to support research into the problems of integrating wind into small decentralised systems.

In June 1985, a group of experts, gathering under the auspices of the IEA, met at the National Engineering Laboratory, UK, to discuss their common interest in the development of wind-diesel technology.