The ‘windmill capital of the world’ used to be down the road from Chicago

Suburban Batavia, just 30 miles west of Chicago, used to be known as the windmill capital of the world. But eventually, technological advances took the wind out of the industry’s sails. In our last episode, we looked into why there are no wind turbines in the Great Lakes even though conditions are favorable. Legal and political hurdles continue to challenge the offshore wind energy business in the Midwest. Today, we’re going to take an historical look at the wind industry in our region. In modern times, Batavia is known for Fermilab, America’s particle physics and accelerator laboratory. But long before that, Batavia was on the map for hosting six windmill factories. Batavia Mayor Jeff Schielke and City Clerk Kate Garrett dive into the town’s history. They take pride in the past, but look forward to the future.

You can listen to The ‘windmill capital of the world’ used to be down the road from Chicago online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

The ‘windmill capital of the world’ used to be down the road from Chicago is an episode from Curious City by WBEZ Chicago.

This episode is 00:11:04 long.

This episode was published on Mar 12, 2026.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from Curious City when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.