News Updates: Wind wind-up for your weekend
May 23, 2008
Sorry about the pun in the headline. Been a long week!
Via Dan Nagengast of the KRC - a photo album of the turbine installation at Fairfield, KS, a Wind for Schools turbine sponsored by NREL. According to the website, the turbine is a Skystream 3.7 1.9kW turbine. The turbine diameter with blades is 3.7m. The photos document the process step by step. Pretty cool!
Also from Dan - an inspirational video about a young African man who started building his own windmills from bicycle parts, truck batteries, tractor fans, etc., in oder to generate electricity for his family compound.
Thank you, Dan. But I did find some other stuff in the video below - I love people who I think of as “tweakers.” They just mess with stuff and build it and get it done one way or another, usually when everyone else is telling them it’s impossible. (In part this is how I ended up married to a guy obsessed with brewing his own biodiesel.)
The kid in the following video is one of those tweakers. Depending on the scale of what they are tweaking, these are also people who should probably go through life permanently outfitted with helmets and eye protection. When it comes to his poor exploded wind turbine (watch the video) his neighbors maybe could have used some protection, too. There are reasons that wind turbines are supposed to be shut off in high winds 
Have a great weekend -
— Maril Hazlett, www.climateandenergy.org
May 23, 2008 at 10:38 am
Maril,
Can’t find your email but figured this would reach you. Here is a quote that summarizes the disconnect (I believe) between how Sunflower thinks and other utilities with a more comprehensive plan think.
“we don’t believe we have a carbon footprint, our customers do…” Steve Miller
I got this from Sarah’s article today. Until they take a vested interest in the problem that is carbon, there will probably not be a viable solution. Anyway, I thought of you and your excellent reflections on the issues when I read this.