_Wind turbines in short supply | Green Tech blog - CNET News.com_ (http://www.news.com/8301-11128_3-9910667-54.html?tag=nl.e433)
"...If you order now, you might not get turbines until late 2009 or later. ....the shortage puts a cap on the growth of wind power, which is one of the more cost-effective sources of renewable energy..." and "....The solar industry has been _struggling with shortages_ (http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9803094-7.html) since 2004..." Now, maybe I am starting to see conspiracies every where - maybe - but With all the unemployment and under employment ..... With States and Federal money going to nonsense like sound walls and nuisance law enforcement and for Homeland Security training ad nauseam and Billions per week in Iraq and war games across the globe; and millions spent on putting up cameras for speeding tickets, free cars and blackberries for millions of government employees, thousands of hours and dollars spent listening to US citizens or reading their snail and email .... with all hat fully funded from local to State to Federal levels ... Somewhere we couldn't find the tax break or federal jobs funding to build power generating wind turbines which would enhance our security and power gird situation and open up new job opportunities and growth here at home? Where is our industrial and political leadership? or could the fact be that given that "....There are a limited number of manufacturers of large turbines--General Electric, Vestas..." and that these are the same players in the nuclear and large scale power plants industry, be a factor? Funny how Brazil can ramp up an entire new industry for biofuels while we were "napping" and paying soaring petrol prices. And we continue to see snags and stumbling blocks in the alternative energy field which should be a high priority from an economic and security standpoint. It is funny how - you can take my state of Missouri as an example -- several State Reps and Senators are collecting funds or using tax credits from the corn based ethanol program but no one is funding the establishment of heavy manufacturing jobs in solar or wind product production or even the farming of more productive ethanol and non food and feed impacting fields like hemp and sugar cane (like Brazil) or a dozen other better energy factoring plants than the major food stuff - corn.....which is a poor choice for energy production... Mmmm a shortage in wind and solar productions and products and apparently a severe shortage in real leadership ... We need to find the alternative energy source powerful enough to goose and charge up our politicians into looking out for our economic and real security future....not just their own bank accounts and fund raising buddies ... Peace, Hugs, and Purrs, Carolyn Rose Goyda Missouri, USA [EMAIL PROTECTED] (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]) April 4, 2008 9:38 AM PDT Wind turbines in short supply Posted by _Michael Kanellos_ (http://www.news.com/8300-11128_3-54.html?authorId=129) | _6 comments_ (http://www.news.com/5208-11128_3-0.html?forumID=2&threadID=36608&start=0&tag=ne.fd.pulse.comments) Want some turbines to build a wind power park? Get in line. High demand--coupled with the engineering challenges of building turbines that can extract hundreds of kilowatts or megawatts of power from the wind--has created a shortage. Wind park developers, thus, are being forced to jostle their plans and supply line relationships to keep projects on track. The town of Hull, Mass. installed wind turbines last year. This is their medium-size turbine, a Vestas V47 that can turn out 660 kilowatts of electricity.(Credit: Martin Lamonica) If you order now, you might not get turbines until late 2009 or later. "There has been a backlog for a significant period of time. The lead time is around a year to a year and a half," said Myke Clark, vice president for policy at Finavera, which develops wind parks and wave energy parks. "It is a pretty significant problem for developers to find turbines." Finavera has avoided much of the pain, he added, through equipment acquisition strategies and close relationships with suppliers. The shortage may also have been a factor in the purchase of Airtricity, which operates wind parks, for $2.7 billion earlier this year by Scottish and Southern Energy, some have speculated. Airtricity had committed contracts for turbines. The company's main operations are in Europe but it is expanding to North America and Europe. The solar industry has been _struggling with shortages_ (http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9803094-7.html) since 2004 when the German government beefed up subsidies. Growing demand in Spain, California, and Canada has exacerbated the problem. You can look at the situation from both a pessimistic and an optimistic perspective. On the down side, the shortage puts a cap on the growth of wind power, which is one of the more cost-effective sources of renewable energy. There are a limited number of manufacturers of large turbines--General Electric, Vestas, etc.--so the picture won't change quickly. These things are big (the span of the blades can be larger than the wingspan of a 747) so it's not a manufacturing task for the lighthearted. Some start-ups are coming out with _small turbines for individual buildings_ (http://www.news.com/Micro-wind-turbines-are-coming-to-town/2100-11398_3-6037539.html) , but it represents a sliver of the market. On the positive side, the shortage means demand is high. As a result, investors seem to have high confidence in wind. "It is easy to get financing. It is difficult to get turbines because there is such a demand for them, so there is a big delay for that," Graham Brennan, program manager for renewable-energy research and development at Sustainable Energy Ireland, the government's green-technology arm, said in a recent interview. On the other hand, the U.S. is contemplating letting several alternative energy incentives and tax credits lapse. That could cut the shortage, at least in the U.S. way back, said one analyst. Topics: _Wind_ (http://www.news.com/8300-11128_3-54.html?categoryId=9729813) Tags: _wind power_ (http://www.news.com/8300-11128_3-54.html?keyword=wind+power) , _turbines_ (http://www.news.com/8300-11128_3-54.html?keyword=turbines) , _offshore wind_ (http://www.news.com/8300-11128_3-54.html?keyword=offshore+wind) , _renewable energy_ (http://www.news.com/8300-11128_3-54.html?keyword=renewable+energy) , _Finavera_ (http://www.news.com/8300-11128_3-54.html?keyword=Finavera) , _General Electric_ (http://www.news.com/8300-11128_3-54.html?keyword=General+Electric) , _Vestas_ (http://www.news.com/8300-11128_3-54.html?keyword=Vestas) **************Planning your summer road trip? Check out AOL Travel Guides. (http://travel.aol.com/travel-guide/united-states?ncid=aoltrv00030000000016) [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
