Albert Betz

Albert Betz (25 December 1885 - 16 April 1968) was a German Physicist and a pioneer of wind turbine technology.

In 1910 he graduated as a naval engineer from "Technische Hochschule Berlin" (Diplomingenieur Schiffbau).From 1911 Betz worked as a researcher at the University of Göttingen aerodynamic laboratory, where he was awarded his PhD in 1919 for his work on 'ship-propellers with minimum loss of energy'.In his 1920 paper "Das Maximum der theoretisch möglichen Ausnutzung des Windes durch Windmotoren (Theoretical limit for best utilization of wind by wind-motors)". His work was based on earlier studies by Frederick Lanchester which included the first full description of lift and drag. The formulation was somewhat complex and had to wait for Ludwig Prandtl's version before becoming generally useful. The Betz' law states that independent of the design of a wind turbine only 16/27 (or 59%) of the kinetic energy in the wind can be converted to mechanical energy. His book "Wind-Energie und ihre Ausnutzung durch Windmühlen (Windenergy and its use by wind-mills)" published in 1926 gives a good account of the knowledge of wind energy and wind turbines at that period.

In 1926 he was appointed as a professor at Göttingen, and from 1936 to 1956 succeeded Ludwig Prandtl as director of the aerodynamic laboratory. From 1947 to 1956 he also headed research into hydrodynamics at the Max Planck Institute.

Betz was awarded the Carl Friedrich Gauss medal of the West German Academy of Science in 1965.