National Lab Studies Building Better Wind Turbines

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Picturesque Holland windmills, very appealing

Huge wind farms are most efficient. like those shown at sea off Holland. I suggest we might also have code changes so homes might have cute windmills here and there in the right neighborhoods. Tax credits for alternative are vital. Before LBJ was fooled into starting the Nam War, there were tax credits for it. I bought shares in 3 solar companies. Then came the war and the credits ended. I lost $6000 on those ethical investments. Since then, solar has been improved in many ways. Maybe my money helped that happen, as long as those companies survived. Some ski resorts have big windmills, already providing total power needed.

auradawn veirs of CA @ Sep 20, 2009 16:58:16 PM

Why Bigger? Why Blades?

I've always been curious as to why the focus seems to be on massive wind turbines. Can anyone shed some light as to why we seem to go for these huge machines when smaller ones may be more responsive to lower wind speeds? Also, why do we focus on the classic fan configuration? I'm sure the fixation on the fan arrangement has some fundamental advantage over the more unique configurations but it seems to me that the alternative configurations may be more sensitive to lower and more variable wind speeds, take up less room, cause fewer bird deaths, and less likely to produce the annoying "thumping" sound of the fan blade models. Can anyone speak to these issues?

WhiteEagle of NC @ Jul 11, 2009 16:52:10 PM

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