Siemens to open Colo. wind turbine R&D center
Siemens Energy plans to open its first U.S. wind turbine research and development facility in Boulder, Colo.
The energy sector of the German company made the announcement on Tuesday in Houston, Texas, at Windpower 2008, the American Wind Energy Association's annual conference.
The center will concentrate on everything from designing better wind turbine components such as aerodynamic blades to conducting atmospheric-science research.
The strongest wind turbine Siemens currently makes has a capacity of 3.6 megawatts, according to the company. The one being used in Colorado will have a 2.3-megawatt capacity.
(Credit: Siemens)As part of the plan, Siemens Energy will collaborate with the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) to install a Siemens 2.3-megawatt (MW) wind turbine at the National Wind Technology Center located just outside of Boulder.
"The creation of these green jobs is good for our economy and our communities and will help set us on a path of greater energy independence," Colorado Governor Bill Ritter said in a statement.
The Siemens R&D center, however, will create only about "12 to 15 green-collar positions in the first year," with a total of 50 new jobs in Colorado by 2013, according to Siemens' own estimates. And those jobs may not be what many economic reports predict could supplant lost jobs for blue-collar professionals.
Most of the employees of the new Siemens facility will be "new hires with a Ph.D. or master's degree in the desired disciplines," according to the Siemens announcement.
Siemens already has wind turbine R&D centers in Copenhagen, Denmark; Aachen, Germany; Delft, the Netherlands; and Keele, United Kingdom. The U.S. facility will share gained wind technology knowledge with those facilities.
The announcement follows news that increased costs in materials, coupled with engineering challenges, are hindering Europe's push to use more renewable sources like wind energy by 2020, according to a report by Cambridge Energy Research Associates.
Candace Lombardi is a journalist who divides her time between the U.S. and the U.K. Whether it's cars, robots, personal gadgets, or industrial machines, she enjoys examining the moving parts that keep our world rotating. Email her at CandaceLombardi@gmail.com. She is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not a current employee of CNET.
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http://wattsupwiththat.wordpress.com/
Now can we stop this lunacy of worrying about climate change and get on with the business of creating wealth and increasing the standards of living for people worldwide? Or do we need to continue to show how this climate change hysteria was a complete farce.
No big deal though, must of this lunacy will stop once the facts about warming and CO2 are revealed to the people of this world. Here's a start.
http://wattsupwiththat.wordpress.com/
Look at the graph.
Hard to explain how we are now cooler than we were 25 years ago and CO2 causes warming.
Now can we stop this lunacy of worrying about climate change and get on with the business of creating wealth and increasing the standards of living for people worldwide? Or do we need to continue to show how this climate change hysteria was a complete farce.
Your points about Global Warming are well taken IMO. I put in turbines because theyt are a great investment. They make cheap power and anyone can have one. Can anyone put a nuclear plant, a cole plant, a hydro dam, in their backyard. Wind is almost everywhere! I sell turbines to power a home that cost less than most people will pay for a car!
Read about these wind farms, first ones in Texas, power flows daily for years and years, equipment paid for itself. There's no problem with this, that's why Texas has now deployed twice what California has. This is no fad, this was succeeding BEFORE any global warming hysteria and should not be lumped with all that...
http://windenergy7.com/turbines/?tag=culberson-county-wind-farm