Let's Build a Windmill!

We can do it together

Welcome to new subscribers and regular readers! Thank you for joining me for today’s song, “The Biggest Windmill” by David Rovics. If you’d like to hear the song before you read about it, I’ve included a YouTube video below the article.
✳️ Note: The level of this article is for students with a TOEIC of 550+, Eiken Pre-1, CEFR B2. For Japanese students, vocabulary words in bold are provided in Japanese below.

Tvind mill, Denmark. Photo: Jens Bludau, Wikimedia Commons

(650 words)
The Background

This song is about a project that was built in the mid-1970s by students and volunteers from the Tvind Schools, a collection of schools known for their experimental approach to education. The project was to build a wind turbine (windmill). It was called Tvindkraft. The song tells that story of how the project came about.

The first verse gives the background. In the 1970s, it was hard to find gas for cars. Nuclear power companies said they could fix the energy problem with more nuclear power stations (radioactive atoms). However, some people in Jutland, northern Denmark, had a different idea. They thought they could use (harness) wind power. So, people who were interested met in a town called Tvind. They decided to build the biggest windmill ever built.

The song

It was in the 1970’s, the fuel crisis had begun
The choices were presented to us as if we had none
Leaders of industry said they could solve the problem
By mastering the power of the radioactive atom
Some folks in western Jutland got a notion in their heads
They thought there might be something they could offer up instead
A few hundred people gathered in a little place called Tvind
And declared their will to harness the power of the wind
We’re gonna build the biggest windmill in the world

A lot of people thought it wasn’t possible to achieve this goal. They thought the windmill would fall over. The people who built it, though, had faith that it would work. The project started to interest people from all over the world.

There were many who said their science wasn’t sound
That such a mighty windmill would simply topple to the ground
Some of them were scientists, the vast majority were not
But they knew with years of effort you could do a lot
Word about the project spread far and wide
A hundred thousand visitors came to help and to advise
Until one day these windmill builders drove in with a crane
And lifted up their giant wings with a mighty chain
We’re gonna build the biggest windmill in the world

Building Tvind Wind Turbine. Photo: Jevanadezda, Wikimedia Commons.

The builders succeeded in building the windmill, and the people who had doubted the project would work now believed them.

When Tvindkraft was completed it reached up to the sky
Its wings churned in the air at 54 meters high
The critics all fell silent, no one now was jeering
As even industry agreed this was some damn fine engineering
The wind regaled Jutland from the north Atlantic sea
As it was seamlessly converted into electricity

Any kind of radioactive leaks or release of radioactive particles into the water or soil system can cause cancer. The people who built this wanted a clean source of electricity for the people, not a dangerous one. The project was also a protest against Denmark building its first nuclear reactor.

It was power for the people, leukemia for none
When they declared in Denmark just south of the midnight sun
We’re gonna build the biggest windmill in the world
The people who designed and built the world’s largest windmill didn’t want to make millions of dollars. They gave the designs free to the world.
They gave away the patents, they said knowledge should be free
And their plans were copied by a new-born industry
Soon Denmark would be known as the windmill-building nation
And it all started with some hippies at the Tvindkraft power station
Debates were held in parliament about which way things should go
Build a nuclear reactor, the majority said no
It could have gone quite differently — in much of the world it did
Except for those in Ulfborg who said we’re getting off the grid
We’re gonna build the biggest windmill in the world

The turbine has been in continuous operation since 1978, showing us how durable and reliable wind power technology can be.

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Question

What do you think about the song's message about the power of community action?

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Vocabulary

windmill 風車
radioactive atom 放射性原子
harness 利用
notion 概念
sound 有効、合理的
mighty 強力
topple 倒す
churn 回転
critics 批評家
jeer 嘲笑する
regale 楽しませる
radioactive leaks 放射能漏れ
leukemia 白血病
patent 特許
parliament 議会
nuclear reactor 原子炉
off the grid 電力網から切り離されている
durable耐久性がある
reliable 信頼できる

Sources
Tvindkraft · the oldest operational megawatt wind turbine in the world. Tvindkraft. (2024, December 18). https://www.tvindkraft.dk/#:~:text=Built%20by%20the%20people%20for,technologies%20that%20would%20become%20world%2D Accessed 28 December 2024.

Unwin, J. (2019, August 14). Tvindkraft - the oldest operating wind turbine in the world. Power Technology. https://www.power-technology.com/features/oldest-operating-wind-turbine-tvindkraft/ Accessed 28 December 2024.

For more information about this song and to learn more about David Rovics, please see his site at:
https://www.davidrovics.com/songbook/the-biggest-windmill/

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I believe that education should be free.

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All of the articles about the songs will remain free for students to use. (We are all students, are we not?) However, if you find these articles useful and are in a position to make a small (or large) donation, I would be deeply grateful.

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英検Pre-1級以上 | 名曲で英語を学ぶ