After 18+ hours on the road I have made it safely to Aurora, Colorado. I had my first day of work at Rentbits, an online rental advertising company. However i do not want to bore you with my everyday grind, so I will bore you with my view on the windmill phenomenon.
At this point you are beginning to become worried, I see it in your eyes, but please let me explain. As my brother and I drove through Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, and Colorado we begin to notice a trend. Wind energy is everywhere. These huge wind turbines standing high in the sky scatter the terrain. Our attention is shifted to the oversize truck loads, with flashing lights, going the other direction. One truck passes with a pacer car in front and one in back, carrying ONE wind turbine blade. Each wind turbine, high in the sky, has three blades, a large gear box, and a big post. A few minutes after the first truck comes a second, with another large turbine blade, followed by a pacer car. 2 more miles down the road we see the third blade, followed by yet another pacer car. That's a lot of trucks for ONE wind turbine, high in the sky. "But wait, there's more," another truck passes carrying a PIECE of the post for the wind turbine (With a pacer car). 3 more miles down the road comes another truck carrying the gear box (with a pacer car) and another truck with another piece of the post. We never did figure out how many trucks it takes to transport the post (I'm thinking 2).
Recap: 1 wind turbine = 3 blades, 1 post, and 1 gear box = 6 over sized semi trucks, 6-12 pacer cars, and xxxxxxxxx gallons of oil. From my limited research it seems that these turbines are coming from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Clipper Wind power in the larger manufacturer in the US and they manufacture all the units in Iowa. Google tells me that if this is true then the turbine travels 1000+ miles to reach their destination.
Efficient? I think not. On the positive side we are creating 12-18 jobs just to transport the wind turbines.
In love,
Harpo
wind power and inefficiency is about as big of oxymoron as i've heard. 1st of all, most wind products are transported by train for the majority of their path, hence a huge reason for Warren Buffett's recent purchase of BNSF. 2nd, Vestas, the largest manufacturer in the world of wind turbines, is all over the world including a plant in your very own portland, but also northern colorado, and locations in between. 3rd and most important, wind power is currently savingn at least 1 billion cubic feet of fossil fuels per day, and that number is growing each day.
ReplyDeleteI love road trips. They get you thinking.
ReplyDeleteI suppose it's a trade off. Short term inefficiency for long term alternative to oil? It's sad how long we have known our dependency on oil was hurting our country and planet, yet we've never really done anything about it. We have WAY to many brilliant people to NOT have this figured out by now.