US falls further behind: World's largest wind turbine is erected in Germany

[Ezlivin]

The new Enercon E-126 "might produce as much as seven megawatts of electricity", all from one wind turbine.

Two of the massive turbines were recently installed in Emden, Germany, and are officially being listed as prototypes. As of yet, no full farms are using the turbine, but with a power rating like that, they can't be far off. The advantages of the E-126 over the E-112 include easier transportation and installation due to modular design and light-weight materials. New complex blade designs that decrease resistance of the tower and increase capture of wind energy and an extra 11 meters in height, that push it just that much further into the faster, more constant higher winds.

Read more at http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/1341/

While our politicians tell us the solution to our energy problems are more coal-fired power plants, more nuclear plants and continued reliance upon oil, other countries look in new directions and push the envelope on renewable energy. Americans aren't dumb, they're just the victims of poor leadership.

[closeupready]

1. This isn't politically correct, but maybe there's a combination of factors at work. I mean,

Why does ANYONE need a huge, gas-guzzling SUV??? Has the word "conservation" been written out of the English language? Why do we hear so little about reducing energy consumption? Because of lack of leadership, yes, but also because Americans are selfish, to a large extent, and I can say that because I'm an American.

[wuushew]

3. There were some conservation measures in the 2007 energy bill

Getting rid of incandescent lightbulbs will help quite a bit.

[hack89]

2. My town has one wind turbine

and is going to install another one soon. Portsmouth RI.

My in-laws live in Hull, MA, which has two turbines.

[hack89]

4. Here is a map of US wind energy projects.

things are not as bad as you might believe.

http://www.awea.org/projects/

[Selatius]

5. Americans are poorly led with a corporate culture that encourages excess.

In France, for instance, the government wages war on what it calls "gas pillage," or excessive consumption of gas. They built mass transit systems that utilize bullet trains, transit buses, and light rail. Then they levied a luxury tax on gasoline to encourage people to use mass transit.

In America, there is no message to conserve gas or find alternatives at all except bitching and whining about high gas prices and little more.

[closeupready]

7. Exactly. Our response is, "well, okay, let's find more. Let's drill in Yosemite."

or the Tongass or off the coast of Brazil or wherever. :eyes: I'm convinced that we will not stop consuming fossil fuels until we have consumed ALL of it. Which is why I think all these appeals to save the environment are in vain. Fossil fuel reduction is not happening now, not happening tomorrow, won't ever happen. IMHO.

[TCJ70]

6. We're third in the world for wind energy production...

...and Germany is WAY ahead of the number 2 spot. Keep in mind these are Dec 2004 numbers, but Germany produced twice as much as Spain, Spain produced 2,000 MW more than we did, and we produced twice as much as Denmark(#4).

Germany 16,629
Spain 8,263
US 6,740
Denmark 3,117

Falling behind to Germany isn't neccesarily a surprise when it comes to wind energy.

Numbers can be found here: http://www.awea.org/faq/wwt_statistics.html

[hack89]

8. The US is now at 16,818 MW

With more on the way.

http://www.awea.org/projects/

[Deja Q]

9. Sweeeeet.

Thanks for the info!

[TCJ70]

10. That was the website I found those old numbers at...

...I hadn't gotten far enough to get the current numbers. heh

[DCKit]

12. Where does the U.S. fall in per capita production?

Germany - .0002 MW
Spain - .00018 MW
U.S. - .000055 MW (using installed capacity at 16,818.78 MW from AWEA's website, not the 6,740 MW quoted above)
Denmark - .000517 MW

Please raise your hand if you think we should be doing better at this than those wacky socialists with unaffordable, universal health care.

[Squatch]

11. How many endangered birds is this going to kill?

:hide:

[begin_within]

16. I find it hard to believe that birds wouldn't be able to see them and fly higher than them.

[Canuckistanian]

13. "Largest"? "Erected"? And in GERMANY?

What an embarrassment for phallic-conscious American he-men everywhere.

[freethought]

14. Has anyone seen the size of this thing!!!

Holy S__t! The thing is massive! One of these can power up to 5000 homes!!! Leave it up to German engineering.
As I understand it, the U.S. could be powered entirely by wind if a few problems could be solved.
First-the "Not-in-my-backyard" mentality. One would need to turn a few states in the upper mid-west and some areas elsewhere into massive wind farms.
Second-the ever present problems of transporting electrical current over long distance. Resistance to flow-What you feed into the transmission lines does not equal what come out the other end. The loss is greater as the distance grows.

Damn! The turbine is HUGE!!

[WinkyDink]

15. Is it named "Dave"?

[leftofthedial]

17. Germans always have the largest erections

welcome to 8th grade.

[cutlassmama]

18. My state is one of the highest ranking. Why does my

electric bill keep jumping up higher then?