The latest issue of the Economist has a list of winners for its Innovation Awards. One of them is Johannes Poulsen, former chief executive of Vesta Wind Systems, "for the commercialization of wind energy." Mr. Poulsen joined Vestas, a small Danish company with 60 employees, in the 1980s. When he retired in 2002, the company "had 5,000 employees and a quarter of the world market for wind turbines." According to the article, Mr. Poulsen led Vestas in this manner, by improving the turbines' efficiency, lowering costs and making wind power more competitive with conventional power sources. I was thrilled to see this recognition in a magazine like the Economist, for someone who probably surpassed any expectations for the viability of wind power that were present in the 1980s. For all of those who say wind power is inefficient and unreliable, Mr. Poulsen is an example of someone who proved them wrong. Although wind power still has challenges, due to varying wind speeds in some regions and perhaps the effectiveness of the turbines themselves in generating power, Mr. Poulsen has brought it from more of a cottage industry to an energy source that can compete, at least in some regions, with fossil fuels. We still have a long way to go with wind power, yet my hope is that companies like Vestas will continue to market wind power in new and improved ways and make a profit in doing so. Other companies may then realize the true viability of wind power and perhaps the many missed opportunities that we have today for using it, such as very windy areas of coastline. We need more visionaries like Mr. Poulsen to help people get over their hesitation over the future of wind power.