03 September 2006

Wind Turbines on HSBC in Birmingham

On my way back from a wedding in Shropshire this weekend, I spotted 6 wind turbines atop the HSBC branch in Birmingham city centre. The wind turbine industry is having a great deal of trouble keeping up with demand for new turbines.

This month, the United States passed the 10,000-megawatt mark in installed wind turbine capacity, according to the American Wind Energy Association, which projects that by the end of next year, that number will reach 15,000 megawatts -- enough to power 3.8 million typical American homes. That's left major wind turbine manufacturers, including Vestas Wind Systems AS, General Electric Co. and Siemens AG, scrambling to meet demand.

"This is a global industry and there is a global shortage of wind turbines," said Randall Swisher, executive director of the Washington-based Wind Energy trade group.

2 comments:

Tom Gray said...

Just FYI, the reason for the turbine shortage is partly our goofy government policies in the U.S.--the primary incentive for wind is extended for a year or two at a time and then (often) allowed to expire. When it's in force, there is enormous pressure to develop and build wind farms as quickly as possible before it expires again. Since manufacturers never know for sure whether it will be extended, they cannot ramp up turbine-making capacity to provide long-term supply. Aarrghh.

Regards,
Thomas O. Gray
American Wind Energy Association
www.awea.org
www.ifnotwind.org

Daniel White said...

We're really having a problem getting people to accept Wind Turbines here in Taiwan. I never knew there was so much oppostion to them until I started doing some research. It almost doesn't make any sense, green fighting green! Check out my forum about energy in Asia: http://www.asiaeast.org/