Wind Generation

[dodge man]

My understanding is the wind turbines are made in the US.

 

[workinonit]

I think what you will find is most of the structural components are made in the US because of the size and shipping but the electrical components will tend to be foriegn. Even US companies have manufacturing facilities in China and Europe.

 

[jyoutz]

Ask the Euro countries in a few months how closing all their nukes, going green too soon and hitching their wagon to Putin's pipelines is working out for them. I have no real issue with having wind turbines and solar farms. It's kinda like putting accessories on your tractor. They look good, make you and everyone else feel better but when work gets really serious they are turned off or not used. Those Euro countries will find out really quickly that the wind don't blow all the time and the sun don't shine as much as they thought it did. It'll hit home when the oil runs out and they are sitting in the dark. They will be exactly where we don't want to be but our president and leaders are trying their hardest to take us. Hopefully if nothing else comes out of WWIII this country will get an eye opening.

Nobody installs wind and solar with the intent of them being the only power source. The best backup to those are gas plants that can be fired up and operating very fast. Any modern power grid is going to have a mix of renewables and other sources. It’s hard to understand some of the posters here who get their panties in a bunch over sensible clean and renewable energy. Our grandparents were smart enough to pump livestock water with renewable wind energy over a century ago.

 

[sea2summit]

Every time I try wind generation my wife tells me to open a window.

 

[Tinhack]

I think what you will find is most of the structural components are made in the US because of the size and shipping but the electrical components will tend to be foriegn. Even US companies have manufacturing facilities in China and Europe.

A few years ago, I think the blades were being made in Mexico. Hundreds of trucks past here headed North on I-35. Every time I went to the grocery store there were trucks passing on the highway carrying a single blade. Don't recall seeing any of the towers though. If I recall correctly, that was the same year drivers from Mexico were allowed to haul across the boarder. Caused a big stink down here.

By the way, those blades are HUGE!

 

[Tinhack]

Oh yeah, another tid-bit of info--Back around ~2010, a study was done on this section of I-35 (South of San Antonio) on the number of trucks using this route. I think the study was done to analyze the best way to handle maintenance. At that time there were over 14,000 trucks per day using this stretch highway.

 

[workinonit]

"Our grandparents were smart enough to pump livestock water with renewable wind energy over a century ago."

I'm sure that didn't come about because they didn't have power or had no feasable way to get it to where the livestock was located. I don't know. What I can say is that in our part of the country as soon as power came along windmills and pitcher pumps disapperaed.

I'm not even going to address your comments about the intentions of the "people" forcing wind and solar down our throats in an attempt to try and replace nuclear and coal generation.

 

[oosik]

Down south of me - where Cougsfan lives - wind generators are sprouting up like mushrooms. Every time I make a great loop down south - another wind farm. Right now our local Co-Op electric utility is getting 10% of its power from wind farms.

 

[jyoutz]

A few years ago, I think the blades were being made in Mexico. Hundreds of trucks past here headed North on I-35. Every time I went to the grocery store there were trucks passing on the highway carrying a single blade. Don't recall seeing any of the towers though. If I recall correctly, that was the same year drivers from Mexico were allowed to haul across the boarder. Caused a big stink down here.

By the way, those blades are HUGE!

I think there are multiple sources in North America for these components.

 

[jyoutz]

"Our grandparents were smart enough to pump livestock water with renewable wind energy over a century ago."

I'm sure that didn't come about because they didn't have power or had no feasable way to get it to where the livestock was located. I don't know. What I can say is that in our part of the country as soon as power came along windmills and pitcher pumps disapperaed.

I'm not even going to address your comments about the intentions of the "people" forcing wind and solar down our throats in an attempt to try and replace nuclear and coal generation.

Coal is obsolete and it was made obsolete by simple economics. It costs more than abundant and much cleaner natural gas turbine power plants. Coal requires mining, trucking, railroads, handling at the plant, frequent plant cleanup and disposal of toxic waste. Natural gas comes to the plant by pipelines and the plants require far less maintenance and no toxic waste disposal. Power companies don’t want to screw around with coal plants anymore. In my state, the largest power company is converting their largest plant from coal to gas. They announced that this conversion will save $10-15 million annually in operating costs. Enough of this blaming government for the demise of coal. It’s dirtier and costs more than a more plentiful alternative and power companies are making good business decisions. Also, the current generation of renewables is close to being cheaper than coal generation.