GE Announces ($1 billion, 800 MW Wind) Turbine Sale (to Invenergy)

installation and maintenance and some of the stories he tells me about the size of them things is amazing, gears bigger than a man is tall etc. Another neighbor used to have a working 5 kw, I think it was, turbine but the generator burned up a couple years ago and he took it down but never put it back up. the 80 ft tower is still there. GRDA our local power company made him meter his output and was+ only playing him 2 cents a kw so it made it not worth the hassle, if they would let him spin his meter backwards he says he would put it back up in an okie heartbeat but so far they haven't budged on the amount they pay.

for the amount of fuel the company
avoids using.

what it would cost them per kw over and beyond what they are producing already, the added cost. Some states I understand make the power companies allow a reversing of the meter rather than a remetering. In his case he could have been connected up so he was using his own produced electric but they wouldn't have that, all or nothing and heres what we pay, sad its that way

Hey man, I too am a Millwright and was wondering if you could send me some advice. I was just poking around the net looking for millwright work with wind turbines when I stumbled upon your post. Do you think you buddy could toss me some advice on who to contact? If not, that's ok too. Thanks!

Nick

Lots and lots of links to companies looking for people

its nice to see wind gaining a larger slice of market share but its pretty easy to see that the status quo still reigns.

Wind plants in the United States operate at 22% capacity utilization.

This means that a wind plant produces about 1/4 the energy of its rated peak power. Thus the wind turbines - not counting the cost of construction and land and clean up of the inevitable waste when the things become junk - is the equivalent of a 200 watt plant operating at close to 100% capacity utilization. Note that this doesn't count the cost of the dangerous fossil fuels that will be burned to maintain spinning reserve or to displace the wind plants when they are not operating because the wind isn't blowing.

Thus the one billion bucks buys the equivalent of 200 MW of other infrastructure.

To make a 1000 equivalent plant requires, it follows, 5 billion dollars - no land, no waste disposal, no construction and no back up.

Wunderbar!

Recently I have noted the presence of people at this website - worshipers all of the Walmart car culture freak Amory Lovins who never saw a rapacious corporation he wouldn't greenwash - praising T. Boone Pickens and now, General Electric.

Now. If general electric were to build a nuclear reactor, which would operate at 90% capacity utilization and require in essence little or no back up and generate comparatively little, if any, waste, we'd have all kinds of cult members here screaming and screaming and screaming.

But you knew that, didn't you.

2006 Wind Installations Offset More Than 40 Million Tons of CO2
Worldwatch Institute – July 25, 2007 – 6:00pm

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The 15,200 megawatts of new wind turbines installed worldwide last year will generate enough clean electricity annually to offset the carbon dioxide emissions of 23 average-sized U.S. coal-fired power plants, according to a new Vital Signs Update from the Worldwatch Institute.<1> The 43 million tons of carbon dioxide displaced in 2006 is equivalent to the emissions of 7,200 megawatts of coal-fired power plants, or nearly 8 million passenger cars.

Global wind power capacity increased almost 26 percent in 2006, exceeding 74,200 megawatts by year’s end. Global investment in wind power was roughly $22 billion in 2006, and in Europe and North America, the power industry added more capacity in wind than it did in coal and nuclear combined. The global market for wind equipment has risen 74 percent in the past two years, leading to long backorders for wind turbine equipment in much of the world.

"Wind power is on track to soon play a major role in reducing fossil fuel dependence and slowing the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere," according to Worldwatch Senior Researcher Janet Sawin. "Already, the 43 million tons of carbon dioxide displaced by the new wind plants installed last year equaled more than 5 percent of the year’s growth in global emissions. If the wind market quadruples over the next nine years—a highly plausible scenario—wind power could be reducing global emissions growth by 20 percent in 2015."

Today, Germany, Spain, and the United States generate nearly 60 percent of the world’s wind power. But the industry is shifting quickly from its European and North American roots to a new center of gravity in the booming energy markets of Asia.

In 2006, India was the third largest wind turbine installer and China took the fifth spot, thanks to a 170-percent increase in new wind power installations over the previous year. More than 50 nations now tap the wind to produce electricity, and 13 have more than 1,000 megawatts of wind capacity installed.

As efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions accelerate around the globe, dozens of countries are working to add or strengthen laws that support the development of wind power and other forms of renewable energy. Rapid growth is expected in the next few years in several countries, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, and Portugal.

“China and the United States will compete for leadership of the global wind industry in the years ahead,” says Sawin. “Although the U.S. industry got a 20-year head start, the Chinese are gaining ground rapidly. Whichever nation wins, it is encouraging to see the world’s top two coal burners fighting for the top spot in wind energy.”
<1>

Calculations are based on U.S. data: average capacity factor for new wind power capacity (34%, from American Wind Energy Association); average capacity factor for coal-fired power plants (72%, from North American Electric Reliability Corporation - NERC); average CO2 emissions from U.S. coal-fired power plants (0.95 kg/kWh, from U.S. Energy Information Administration); and average coal-fired power plant capacity (318 megawatts, from NERC).

I'm sure someone mentioned that somewhere.