Texas now wants to clean up its image of being an oil state by becoming a clean energy leader. They are one of four states to become part of the Clean Energy Incubator Network and are having many new companies starting up to improve wind technology.
Wetzel Engineering is a leading group that is working on cutting the transportation costs of wind turbine blades by making them easily portable. One of the largest problems with the wind energy community is that it costs so much to ship parts to where they are needed. Because wind turbine blades are growing longer so they can be more efficient, this has become even more of a problem. Very long truck beds are currently needed to transport them. They hope to make a blade that can be taken apart during transportation and then easily reassembled at the wind farm site. With this, they also hope to make the blades lighter, which will not only help in transportation, but will make it so they take less wind to spin them.
Now GE comes into the picture. They are also joining the race to make a better wind turbine in Texas. They believe that if a gigantic nose is placed over where the blades meet in the middle, it will be even easier to use the concept of joined wind turbine blades.
They also are testing a different idea for the wind turbine’s tower. It is a space frame. The idea is to get rid of large parts and make them into smaller parts that can be easily assembled on the site.
Another benefit of all this work is there is now a pile of job creation in the field. At the same time, the oil industry is loosing employees.
Wetzel Engineering is a leading group that is working on cutting the transportation costs of wind turbine blades by making them easily portable. One of the largest problems with the wind energy community is that it costs so much to ship parts to where they are needed. Because wind turbine blades are growing longer so they can be more efficient, this has become even more of a problem. Very long truck beds are currently needed to transport them. They hope to make a blade that can be taken apart during transportation and then easily reassembled at the wind farm site. With this, they also hope to make the blades lighter, which will not only help in transportation, but will make it so they take less wind to spin them.
Now GE comes into the picture. They are also joining the race to make a better wind turbine in Texas. They believe that if a gigantic nose is placed over where the blades meet in the middle, it will be even easier to use the concept of joined wind turbine blades.
They also are testing a different idea for the wind turbine’s tower. It is a space frame. The idea is to get rid of large parts and make them into smaller parts that can be easily assembled on the site.
Another benefit of all this work is there is now a pile of job creation in the field. At the same time, the oil industry is loosing employees.
GE Wind Turbine Nose