# Delivery article of 2.3 megawatt units.



## Windy in Kansas (Jun 16, 2002)

Today's edition of the newspaper, local to me, carries the story of the delivery steps for the first nacelles from the local Siemens plant that was opened last year. 

I was surprised to read about the steps taken during rail shipment and even after the nacelles arrive on site in Washington state. I thought you might enjoy reading of them too.

http://hutchnews.com/Todaystop/siemens-prepares-first-shipment--1

I was quite surprised that once loaded the units are wired to a control panel and during shipment and after destination arrival the units are powered up every so often to keep the bearings greased, etc. This powering up continues until the units are mounted and operational. 

We local residents feel quite proud to be a part of the wind energy industry and certainly welcomed this company into our midst. During negotiations for an industrial site and an incentive package the company told that it was likely that their presence would attract other suppliers and it has proven true. I don't know if just one business has now begun construction or if two have.


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## goatsareus (Jun 23, 2007)

That's really neat, thanks for the link. I have been following the wind turbines installed outside of Walnut Iowa, I have ancestors from Walnut and was through there a few years ago. There is a you-tube video taken by one of its technicians from the top of the turbine:shocked:


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## Darren (May 10, 2002)

A lot of equipment requires special handling to ensure it's still operational after delivery. It's not uncommon for people to accompany some rail shipments of equipment.


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## Windy in Kansas (Jun 16, 2002)

There is an Iowa connection to the nacelles built here, the blades and hub assemblies are built in Iowa. I'm still not quite sure what it was that prompted Siemens to locate in Hutchinson instead of nearer their Iowa plant but we are thankful for it even though our local economy was fairly stable. 

I'm planning a 2011 trip to Iowa with a side trip to Omaha so I expect I'll be going through Walnut. 

My grandparents met in Iowa and after both had moved to Kansas they began courting and were married. My trip to Iowa will be partially for genealogical research.


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## mightybooboo (Feb 10, 2004)

"It'll NEVER work"

ONLY Nuclear power is viable,clean,safe and cost effective.


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## Windy in Kansas (Jun 16, 2002)

Do the power companies really care whether it is cost effective or not as long as they can pass the costs along to the consumer.

Current wind production is given at 3% of all energy produced in the United States and of course is growing----probably along with consumption. 

Wind generation produced about 16.1% of all energy in Germany in 2009. I expect the percentage is growing there as well.

Unless some form of storage could be utilized wind can never produce a large percentage of all energy consumption. 

I fully agree that nuclear is the proper course to take. I would like to see the small city sized units placed into use such as those by Toshiba. I understand they are called micro nuclear plants. http://www.nextenergynews.com/news1/next-energy-news-toshiba-micro-nuclear-12.17b.html


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## Jim-mi (May 15, 2002)

I set up many MET towers for 'Heritage Co' 40-50and 60 meters tall.

They set up this wind farm using 2.5MW Fuerlander (sp?) turbines out of Germany.
Now Michigan has a 'factory' producing 2.2MW turbines . . .which are direct drive..........instead of the BIG ****** gear box's used in the German units.

At least a couple of the direct drives are going in at the Stoney Corners wind farm. I think Stoney Corners has 15 turbines thus far.

For an a small slide show of the German units being installed try

www.heritagewindenergy.com

go to link and click on 'projects'

100meter hub higth. 140' blades. 14 rpm max speed. 36,500 down tower volts.
Should you decide that you could use a crane . . like as shown . . I must warn you they Only cost $6,000,000. . . . .and take two weeks to set up. . . . . . .lol

Yup I'm quite happy to have been involved with the Heritage Co.


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## Two Cents Worth (Dec 8, 2002)

The company here (Siemens) will be producing the direct drive units in 2012.

http://www.hutchnews.com/Latestlocalnews/Siemens-receives-large-wind-turbine-order

The article mentions several output sizes for units they will be building. They are looking at building (not here I don't think) 6 MW units that are direct drive for off shore usage. They too will have production runs started in 2012.


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## mightybooboo (Feb 10, 2004)

Yup,it'll never work,except it does.

Didnt work for the Dutch either,LOL!

It never ceases to amaze all the naysayers :fussin: who INSIST it doesnt work.Ive watched this Industry out in Palm Springs area from its infancy with little tiny turbines,experimental egg beaters etc grow into the 2 MW monsters I see now,and who only knows whats coming? All they do is get bigger,better and less expensive per output.

Yet you can go to general chat here and listen to endless folks insist they DONT work,CANT work,arent cost effective,never run,on and on.Only the nuke meltdown category 7 disaster is cheap clean and viable.....only thats wrong on all 3 counts.:hammer:

LOL,and nukes apparently dont require upgrading the grid to handle the power,thats a wind thing only,LOL again.Plus they destroy the planet building them,but airplanes,cars,refrigerators again dont for some reason,just renewable power.Yup.gotta love it.

Plus turbines wear out and need replacing,unlike nukes that dont and dont require huge decommissioning costs and dangers.Just turbines.

Yet industry conts. to put em up because they are stupid and dont know better apparently.There is no stopping them,just 100 hundred of the 6mw turbines puts out the power of a traditional nuke,and it takes very little space to put up 100 turbines.in palm springs they have em in lines like 10-15 long,so 7 to 10 lines and its a nuke in output at viable price per watt with the sixes,double that for 3mw plants.Waaaaay doable:dance:

Glad the 'experts' who say it cant be done dont run the power companies because wind is exploding in growth and will cont to until there is no money left in this country to build infrastructure.

Go wind power! THE best source of renewable clean cheap SAFE power out there for the grid for now.Read it and weep naysayers,the world is passing you by.:nana:

BooBoo<----- "It'll NEVER Work"


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## AgrarianDr (Mar 25, 2011)

Got a question for those of you who may know more than I about wind power (that would be most everyone).

I currently have a 28' homemade air-dam-tower. It works, fairly well I suppose, but I have always looked at it as a toy/experiment that I never finished. 
Will try and post a photo later on once I get home, but it "kinda" looks like this, only much taller of course, with base being much wider than the top, corner separation panels and the rotor pointing straight down
Hardly conventional, but it DOES work

I know the performance limitations due to height etc, but for various reasons I am somewhat limited - and was looking to either add another tower or try something new.

This one - or something like it, has always piqued my interest. I have played around a couple times on a very small scale with boundary layers and have always been amazed that has not been more manipulated to the benefit of small scale wind power systems.

It's been a while, but I made a test setup with a small blade and by placing a plain 'ol ball directly in front of the rotor made a HUGE performance difference in light wind.

I'm likely going to try something different this time, so any thoughts would be welcomed

TIA

EDIT; I guess I should point out that the reason I am looking at something like these is the same reason I built the wide based wind-dam, and that was to try and compensate for lower quality wind (being closer to the ground) by collecting more of ti, and then forcing it into a "dam" or by creating a vortex - thanks


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## Darren (May 10, 2002)

mightybooboo said:


> "It'll NEVER work"
> 
> ONLY Nuclear power is viable,clean,safe and cost effective.


Now booboo, don't be negative. You know windmills are dependable and can stand up to any tornado or hurricane no matter how bad. :stirpot:


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## mightybooboo (Feb 10, 2004)

Darren said:


> Now booboo, don't be negative. You know windmills are dependable and can stand up to any tornado or hurricane no matter how bad. :stirpot:


Yeah,the grid is down and we are still glowing in the dark from that,not to mention the horrible effects it has on the ocean,and all the people with wind illnesses that will produce.


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## Darren (May 10, 2002)

If bats could speak, would they jump up and down and cheer?


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## mightybooboo (Feb 10, 2004)

Darren said:


> If bats could speak, would they jump up and down and cheer?


Old story,new turbines arent the bird choppers the older faster ones were....Now if we could outlaw cats.....

LOL,guess we will find turbine debris in our milk,and veggies and mushrooms now,oh the humanity.And the cost to repair and cleanup,horrible could be in the hundreds of billions to replace that turbine and reclaim the land.I heard they are going to have to build a sarcophagus over it,at the cost of 100,000's of thousands of soviet soldiers lives.


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## Darren (May 10, 2002)

There's quite a bit more than a few tweety birds to be concerned about about, Booboo. I'll get to that later. First:

"The Wind Industry is meeting much public resistance in Europe, especially in Germany and Denmark , the inefficiency has become apparent and people are angry at the cost of wasted resources. The industry is searching for a bigger market in the U.S. to replace lost sales in Europe ." 

"Because of the fluctuating nature of wind, the amount of energy produced by wind plants is expressed as an average annual output called capacity factor. Research proves that *average annual capacity for wind plants is only 15-30% of their installed capacity.*"

http://www.keepersoftheblueridge.com/wind-energy-facts.html


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## mightybooboo (Feb 10, 2004)

Believe what you want.The reality,It WORKS and its growing,SORRY,thats a FACT.

Why is it GROWING,because it WORKS,thats the reality whether you like it or not. REALITY.

Not interested in your anti propaganda sites. Ive seen it,with my own eyes,OUR utility is loaded with em,cant erect em fast enough.At competitve prices for power to boot. Again REALITY.

Sorry Darren,you lose on this one,its coming on strong without any signs of abating,another pesky FACT.

Gee ,reality sure is a bummer when it comes up against your prejudices.Think you can show me 2 dead turbines and Im through,sorry again,I'll raise you 2 melted down Nukes at 100's of billions in losses,not to mention the human costs.Here,let me put in a Cherny or Fuki pic,eh?

Fukishima










Chernobyl










Chernobyl,afterwards...a graveyard.










But I forgot ,they build turbines to lose money and charge rates that arent competitve...oh wait,they DO make money and they ARE competitive,whatta bummer eh?

Whatever...

GO WIND POWER!! And it will,as it IS. SORRY!!!! :banana02:


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## Darren (May 10, 2002)

Booboo, I'm not against wind power completely. You still have to consider that: *Research proves that average annual capacity for wind plants is only 15-30% of their installed capacity.* You cannot get around that.

That means because the wind doesn't provide sufficient energy to drive a turbine 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, you need other sources of power. The same goes for solar when the sun isn't shining. So if you need power, lets say to charge your electric car, at night when neither the sun is available or wind may not be available, you need another source of power.

A nuclear power plant operates 24/7 for 18 to 24 months before it shuts down for about a month for refueling and associated maintenance that has to be done when the reactor isn't operating. During a year, a nuclear power plant can generate 1,000 megawatts every hour whether the sun is or is not shining and whether the wind is blowing or not blowing.

That means you simply cannot triple the amount of wind turbines to make up for the capacity factor unless you have a way of storing gargantuan amounts of power. How are you going to do that? That's the question you need to answer.


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