If you’ve ever driven by a handful of wind turbines scattered across a hill or plain, it’s hard to imagine how big they really are; if you’ve ever driven down the highway and attempted to pass an 18-wheeler pulling one of the blades or a segment of the tower, you’ve been given an up close idea as to how big they are.
The tower of the tallest turbine is nearly as tall as a football field is long, stretching 82 yards (246 feet); the blades are 172 feet, nearly the length of two basketball courts; the nose of these towering, surprisingly quiet giants is nearly twice as long as a 6-foot man.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, “good wind” areas cover about 6 percent of contiguous land in the nation has the potential to meet the needs of more than one and a half times the current electricity demand in the U.S.
Converting wind to energy is a seemingly simple process, as the turbine blades turn, a shaft connected to a generator is spun, thereby producing electricity.
Considering the amount of energy turbines can produce, and the simplicity in which they operate, why isn’t wind energy involved in our basic supply of electricity? Though wind energy is obviously a clean fuel source, we can’t control the wind. The turbines are run on a cost basis, depending on how “energetic” the wind site is, thereby affecting cost competition.
While we continue the debate on whether or not wind energy is the way to go, companies like Americas Wind Energy (OTCBB: AWNE) continue to supply North America with turbines. Shares of AWE are continuing yesterday’s ascent up the charts, climbing 11 cents, nearly 17 percent, to 76 cents by noon CDT.
Yesterday the company released a statement reiterating its sale of two of its AWE 900 wind turbines to Waverly Light and Power for $3.4 million. Only yesterday, Waverly itself made the announcement regarding the sale made in July, also noting the turbines should be in operation by the summer of 2008, producing more than 4 million kilowatts of electricity for the Waverly community.
The turbines will be added to Skeets 4, already in operation just north of Waverly, making Waverly Light the first public power system to own and operate wind generation in the Midwest.
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