----- Original Message -----
From: "Jed Rothwell"
The largest turbine ever built lasted only weeks.
Where was that? As far as I know, the largest turbines ever
built are in service today. They 2.5 MW units, and I think 5 MW
ones are in the works.
Today's quiz; what 70s era boondoggle generated 2 MW (total!
almost <g>) created devotees called 'wooshies', was the largest
windmill in the world by a long shot (at the time) didn't work -
and set-back wind-energy in the USA by at least a decade (along
with burial help from Ron Ray-gun) ?
Answer; the DoE windmill on Howard's Knob, near Boone N.C. ....
DOA ... October, 1978.
http://www.mountaintimes.com/history/1970s/windmill.php3
Standing 131 feet high, sporting two 97 foot blades that rotated
counterclockwise at 35 miles an hour, the windmill generated much
fanfare when it was announced that the knob had been chosen for
the largest working model designed to convert wind power to
electricity.
Managed by NASA and operated by BREMCO, the windmill was hoped to
be part of a renewal energy movement begun under President Jimmy
Carter.
The Federal Energy Research and Development Administration had
begun their research into wind-powered energy in 1973, with
Howard's Knob selected as one of 17 sites, and 1n 1977 announced
that Boone would be the location of the granddaddy of them all; a
$6.2 million, ten-story, 350-ton, 2000 kW (two million watts)
monster built by General Electric.
It was hoped that the windmill would generate enough electricity
for 300 to 500 average size homes at winds of 25 mph. Even without
the subsequent election of Ronald Reagan, who pulled the federal
funding for alternative energy source research and development,
the indications soon showed Howard's Knob generation less of
electricity than of eccentricity. The woosh of the steel blades -
actually through the blades as they stood stock-still - was
producing less power than pranksters, as a local group of college
students started a group called the Wooshies.
The Charlotte Observer took full journalistic advantage with a
story on a "full-blown mythical cult," and a lead that if you
placed a giant windmill in front of ten thousand college students
"someone had to tilt."
Jones
