The number of wind turbine parts built in the United States grew in 2008 along with the boom in the wind energy market. But despite the growth in demand for wind turbine parts, the US has continued to import the lion’s share of these parts.

Imports of wind turbine parts to the US went from $60 million worth in 2004 to $2.5 billion in 2008.
With that amount of money going to importing wind turbine parts it definitely seems like there’s a lot of growth potential for American manufacturers.

Vestas is one of the major producers of wind turbines with one fifth of all wind turbines erected in the US being built by Vestas. One of their senior vice presidents, Roby Roberts, states of the situation that, “Wind is positioned to help take a lot of those manufacturing jobs that have been lost, especially in the auto industry, and move them into the work we’re trying to do.”

Although Vestas has not made any of its turbines on American soil, Roberts stated that by 2010, they plan to build all of them in the US, with one factory currently built in Colorado and three more expected to be up and running by early 2010.

Will this be a part of growing trend that sees long term jobs popping up on a massive scale in the wind power industry. With all the incentives and investments being invested in wind energy by the Obama adiministration is seems likely that wind power, and wind power jobs, will be here to stay.

Risø, the National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy at the Technical University of Denmark, is conducting researching on improving the efficiency of wind turbine blades by adding plastic edges on the blades.

Helge Aagaard Madsen, who is a research specialist on the project, explains, “Providing the blade with a movable trailing edge it is possible to control the load on the blade and extend the life time of the wind turbine components. This is similar to the technique used on aircrafts, where flaps regulate the lift during the most critical times such as at take-off and landing. If the results confirm our estimated performance, we will test the rubber trailing edge on a full-scale wind turbine within a few years.”

Research shows built-in rubber cavities provide the desired movement of the trailing edge, when the cavities are being put under pressure by air or water. The rubber cavities thus save the turbine blades from wear-and-tear.

First of all, Dong Energy? Seriously? Hahahahaha. OK, I’m over it. Sorry about that.

Dong Energy has recently signed a deal with Siemens… Bwahahahaha… Siemens? Really? Siemens is supplying Dong! Man, you just can’t make this stuff up. OK, sorry, back to your regularly scheduled wind power news.
Dong Energy is all set to erect (giggle) up to 500 offshore wind turbines in Northern Europe thanks to a recent agreement with Siemens AG. The wind turbines in question will have a total capacity of 1,800 megawatts and each will have an individual capacity of 3.6 megawatts.

CEO of the Renewable Energy Division of Siemens Energy René Umlauft, said this marked one of the biggest orders ever for Siemens (snicker).

Both Dong and Siemens made history together when they constructed the world’s first offshore wind farm at Vindeby in Denmark. Thrusting the mighty structures forth into the wide open sky, glistening with the condensation, the ocean pounding against their mighty girth… damn it!

The Emerging Energy Research’s annual Wind Turbine Market Share Update found that in 2008 the established wind turbine manufacturers installed over 50 percent more wind turbines than the previous year. Newer wind turbine companies saw a growth of 100 percent.

The big established wind turbine companies include: Bestas, General Electric, Gamesa, Enercon, Suzlon and Siemens. This group of six companies accounted for 70 percent of all of last year’s installations.

So despite the 100 percent growth of the newer companies, of which there are approximately 15, like Sinovel, Dongfang and Clipper, they are still fighting for a much smaller piece of the wind turbine pie.

Globally, wind turbine manufacturers installed about 11 GW more worth of turbines in 2008 than in 2007 to a total of almost 30 GW which amounts to nearly double what was installed in 2006.

Think you have to spend a bunch of money to buy contraption to be a member of the wind turbine club? Think again. Rooftop wind turbines are becoming more and more popular. Rooftop turbines send the electricity they generate straight on to the homeowner’s circuit box, thus reducing their utility bills while using a renewable resource.

For example, the Swift Wind Turbine is both compact and quiet. By installing a wind turbine, users can reduce their carbon emissions as well as lower their electricity bills. When the wind is blows at 30 miles an hour or more, it will generate 1.5 kilowatts of electrical power However, these turbines can still run between $10 - $12,000 but state and federal incentives will help buyers supplement the cost.

The English wind farm that had allegedly suffered a UFO attack that led to the destruction of a £1 million wind turbine several weeks ago has now announced that the cause was actually quite terrestrial after all.

Dale Vince, owner of Ecotricity, the wind power facility in question, originally reported that he had seen glowing spheres with octopus-like “tentacles” on the night that the wind turbine was destroyed. This led to speculation that the turbine’s destruction was a result of alien craft.

Now the wind turbine’s manufacturer, Enercon, has done an assessment of the damage and come to the conclusion that it was not caused by low-flying craft, alien or otherwise. Instead, material fatigue is being cited as the cause for the wind turbine losing one of its blades.

“To be honest I’m not surprised. But there was part of me that did hope it was a UFO as it was a lovely story,” Vince said.

Fraser McLachlan of GCube, a wind turbine insurer, had released an immediate statement that downplayed the UFO theory. “You get three or four cases of things like this a year. They are machines and machines are going to break,” he said.

One thing we haven’t seen explained is where the remains of the massive blade went. As we wrote in a previous report on the  UFO wind turbine incident earlier, the massive 20-meter was no where to be found after the incident.

With the wind industry booming, many owners of wind farms built during California’s wind boom of the 1980s are thinking about upgrading their wind turbines. However, with everyone thinking greener these days, many are finding alternatives to sending their worn-out wind turbines to the junk yard.

An increasing number of new companies are buying up the old turbines on the cheap, overhauling them and reselling them at cheaper prices. Portland-based Nexion DG, for example, offers recycled wind turbines that the company salvaged from California wind farms.

“To go out and build a new turbine of the size we’re working with, it would end up costing twice as much,” said Matt Stein, director of operations for Nexion DG. “And anybody building components for new wind turbines is focusing on the 1 megawatt-plus turbines because that’s where the action is.”

Perks for customers of recycled wind turbines include cheaper prices as well as shorter waiting times, around two months for a rebuilt machine, rather than a year for a new one.

Barack Obama spoke at Cardinal Fastener, a Bedord, Ohio factory that produces parts for wind turbines.

Obama vowed to put a half million people to work, building wind turbines and solar panels, creating more jobs in the renewable energy industry.

“Renewable energy isn’t something pie-in-the-sky,” Obama said. “It’s not part of a far-off future. It’s happening all across America right now. With all the bad news going on out there, with all the news of jobs lost and businesses shuttered, jobs were created right here.”

It’s official: The next big thing is looking to be wind power, folks. Can we get a hoo raah? Amongst the grim economic news comes the silver lining that one million people will be employed worldwide by the wind-power industry by the end of the decade, despite the impact of the financial crisis.

“It has been another record year for the industry. People say these growth rates can’t go on forever, but they keep on going on,” said Steve Sawyer, secretary general of the Global Wind Energy Council.

Although wind and solar power companies have faced financial difficulties caused by the continuing economic crisis due to the lack of available financing for wind and solar projects, it is unclear how profoundly it would reduce or delay demand and profitability. However, grid connections remain key to the future of wind energy in all parts of the world and newly elected U.S. president Barack Obama is looking to the current financial crisis to invest in this area.

“Renewable energy isn’t something pie-in-the-sky,” Obama told workers at an Ohio plant that produces wind turbine parts. “It’s not part of a far-off future. It’s happening all across America right now. With all the bad news going on out there, with all the news of jobs lost and businesses shuttered, jobs were created right here.”

Barack Obama spoke at an Ohio plant that manufactures small parts used in wind turbines, to build support for his economic stimulus plan. He told the small company of about 65 workers that the U.S. is in the middle of crisis unlike any “in our lifetime.”

“Renewable energy isn’t something pie-in-the-sky,” Obama said. “It’s not part of a far-off future. It’s happening all across America right now. With all the bad news going on out there, with all the news of jobs lost and businesses shuttered, jobs were created right here.”

Obama toured Cardinal Fastener, who began building wind turbine parts just two years ago and was chosen to highlight two aspects of his policy: creating U.S.-based manufacturing jobs and investing in alternative energy sources.

“It’s not too late to change course, but only if we take dramatic action as soon as possible,” Obama said. “We’re looking to create good jobs that pay well and won’t be shipped overseas.”