Comments on: Small Wind Turbine Market Growing Strong in U.S.

By: Zachary Shahan

Zachary Shahan — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 19:04:00 +0000

Yep, too may crazies in the world

By: Bob_Wallace

Bob_Wallace — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 15:44:00 +0000

” The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health published recently a scientific study on health impacts of wind turbines. The study was undertaken by a panel of independent experts “to identify any documented or potential health impacts of risks that may be associated with exposure to wind turbines, and, specifically, to facilitate discussion of wind turbines and public health based on scientific findings”.

No scientific evidence could be found that the so called “wind turbine syndrome” exists.”

http://www.wwindea.org/home/index.php

Now, it could well be the case that some people who are overly concerned about wind turbines in their backyards are making themselves sick with worry, but it’s hard to blame turbines for self-induced illness.

The site also states that over 700,000 small wind turbines have been installed worldwide.

According to this site (CT) there were 197 GW of wind installed at the end of 2010. With lots of installed turbines around 2 MW that’s a heck of a lot of turbines. The number of large turbines could be around 100,000.

A dozen pictures of burning turbines is pretty insignificant, even if it was a dozen different turbines and not different pictures of the same turbine.

(I saw multiple pictures of the turbine that failed in Scotland last year. Shots from different angles and at different times during the flame out.)

By: Cal Morton

Cal Morton — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 15:15:00 +0000

Good grief… there really are people out there that believe in blazing, vomit inducing wind turbines. We’ve been installing wind turbines for decades, there are thousands and thousands of them… don’t you think if they were REALLY catching fire and making lots of people sick there would be actually reams of evidence of this? Yes, occasionally, very, very infrequently a turbine will malfunction, and could go up in flames… they put the fire out and replace the turbine. There is not toxic radiation emitted, spilled into the sea.

By: Small Wind Turbine Market Growth Continues | CleanTechnica

Small Wind Turbine Market Growth Continues | CleanTechnica — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 17:40:22 +0000

[…] Shahan 3 Comments nRelate.domain="cleantechnica.com"; I published preliminary stats on the American Wind Energy Association’s 2011 report on small wind turbine growth about a month ago. The official release of the study results is now out. Here’s AWEA’s […]

By: Small Wind Turbine Market Growth Continues | CleanTechnica

Small Wind Turbine Market Growth Continues | CleanTechnica — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 10:17:14 +0000

[…] Shahan Leave a Comment nRelate.domain="cleantechnica.com";I published preliminary stats on the American Wind Energy Association’s 2011 report on small wind turbine growth about a month ago. The official release of the study results is now out. Here’s AWEA’s […]

By: Win a Vespa!.. from a Home Wind Turbine Company | CleanTechnica

Win a Vespa!.. from a Home Wind Turbine Company | CleanTechnica — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 17:39:19 +0000

[…] common sense.Meet Joe… from Dieter Sauer on Vimeo.As I wrote recently (in two pieces), the small-wind-turbine market has been growing fast. In 2010, the small wind turbine market grew more than in any other year, growing by 26%. […]

By: Arista Power Introduces Portable Micro Wind Turbine | CleanTechnica

Arista Power Introduces Portable Micro Wind Turbine | CleanTechnica — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 11:23:16 +0000

[…] capacity will grow from 50MW to 152MW by 2015, according to Pike Research. Also check out, “Small Wind Turbine Market Growing Strong in the US.”Arista’s line of portable micro wind turbines is the latest example of the innovation […]

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 12:48:00 +0000

hmm, i haven’t heard about or seen pics of either issue.

from what i’ve read on health effects of wind turbines in general, though, there doesn’t seem to be a case for them causing health problems… but, yeah, more research should be done (as always). i don’t think halting their growth when they are displacing clearly harmful coal power is a good idea at this stage though

By: Bwlentz

Bwlentz — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 21:34:00 +0000

How many wind turbines caught fire each year? I’ve seen a dozen photos of burning and burned turbines, just wondered if it was a serious problem. Also the results of studies on the illnesses caused by living near them would be of interest. Not that I’m against them, anything to save energy and living costs is great! But we need to know the down side of new technologies before heaps of them are installed, and correct the problems before they are more widely introduced.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 12:54:00 +0000

yeah, i noticed the same (and less strongly pointed it out). don’t know enough about the specifics of this industry to know why the price is going up (but have a guess…)

By: Matthew Peffly

Matthew Peffly — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 12:12:00 +0000

And then the bad news.
If the numbers are right then the “small” turbines are getting larger: ~1Kw/unit 2001-2007 1.67/2008 2.07/2009 3.28/2010

The cost ber Kw is going UP: $3360/Kw (2005) $4460/Kw(2009) $5434/kw (2010)
Where are the saving on scale? I guess what the chart is really saying is the sales force got a lot better in the last 5 years. While I glad to see the the growth in install base. No way that will keep up with cost per KW rising that fast. Looking at the delta cost of KW year to year: -5% (2005), +24%(2006), +6%(2007), -4%(2008), +6%(2009), +22%(2010). For 2005 to 2010 that is a rise of 61% in cost per KW.