"Wind industry jobs jumped to 85,000 in 2008, a 70% increase from the previous year, according to a report released Tuesday from the American Wind Energy Association. In contrast, the coal industry mining employs about 81,000 workers. (Those figures are from a 2007 U.S. Department of Energy report but coal employment has remained steady in recent years though it’s down by nearly 50% since 1986.) Wind industry employment includes 13,000 manufacturing jobs concentrated in regions of the country hard hit by the deindustrialization of the past two decades." So...all wind-related jobs outnumber coal mining, but not the entire coal industry. The article's title was kind of comparing apples to oranges. Nonetheless, good - and surprising - news. Seeing how the title here at tmc is different from the current title at cnn, I assume they changed the title after noticing that it was misleading.
The Sierra Club supports wind because they feel it kills less birds than any option. Now A new study backs this up.
BBC NEWS | UK | Giant Scottish wind farm from the air Scotland's first minister to switch on Europe's largest onshore windfarm | Online news | New Civil Engineer BBC NEWS | UK | RSPB calls for more UK wind farms London Array gets green light | Online news | New Civil Engineer
I just read an article in a Norwegian newspaper about this project. Statoil being the largest and stateowned oil company in Norway (State-oil). The scary thing is the amount of NIMBY'ism connected to this project when it's not even on land... Cobos
Thanks for this. I'm not clear if it uses AC induction for the generator or if it is a DC brushless design with permanent magnets. Magnetic bearings is a fun idea but how well do they cope with annual temperature ranges? In any case, as with model aircraft, isn't aerodynamic rather than mechanical drag the main problem with small-scale wind turbines?
Would be nice if one sweeping federal law could stop this madness. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/13/us/13wind.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&partner=rss&emc=rss
It's too bad she had to endure this. She should have put up solar panels instead. See, solar panels can lie flat on the roof so they're relatively hidden. Wind turbines on the other hand are always quite prominent. While I'm sure it's very quiet and safe, there will always be people who consider it an eyesore.
You probably could, but at any rate you are of course entitled to your opinion. It certainly depends on the particular turbine, but I think some of the concerns are legitimate. I would not be happy with noise at night and during the day, a strobing shadow and can make some feel ill. Power lines aren't that bad. Probably the power can be generated more efficiently at wind farms with larger turbines a good distance from where I'm trying to sleep.