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Vestas Wind Systems A/s

One of the world's largest makers of wind turbines, this Danish company designs, builds, installs, and services the spinning machines that turn breeze into electricity for utilities and farms. It grew from a blacksmith workshop founded in 1898 in Lem, Denmark, that later made kitchen mixers and hydraulic cranes. When the 1970s oil crisis hit, its engineers secretly tinkered with wind power to avoid being laughed at — and sold its first turbine in 1979.