Huge Texas Wind Farm's Turbines Will Be Made in China

So much for Obama's green job for America. They are already gone before we ever got them. He is such an ignorant president. His promises meant absolutely nothing. He could have subsidized 20k for every home in the USA to convert partially or totally to solar. Nope, spent it on Tarp. The tech exists and all we need to do is train installers and install millions of systems and create many "American" jobs. Demand would be up and prices down with more manufactures beefing up production and becoming more effecient.This would decentralize production, making our power infrastructure less vulnerable to terrorism and create a real need to upgrade to smart grid technology. The need for new power grids would be minimalized by this approach. I forgot to say leaving the current production sources available to fuel new industries with cheaper not more costly energy. OOPS! I forgot Uncle Sams allegience is to corporations and not to us. Power companies would have to buy power from us the common man and that would minimize their control on electric power by creating massive wind farms and solar farms. By the way, this would also create a vast service and aftermaket industry. Obama's plan is a slap in the face to our countries struggle for energy independence. Just lip service as usual.

orangebloodedal, you're an idiot.

At least I have a plan

Everone thought George Westinghouse was an idiot to disagree with Edison that AC power was the wave of the future. I beleive his thinking outside of the box made him an idiot also. Look at us today. He was a brilliant, forward thinking engineer/inventor.

Imagine this 150,000,000 homes generating just 5KW of solar power. All hot water suppoted by solar systems.
That is 7.5 trillion kilowatts ++ of power. One heck of a wind farm I say.To lose 10% of the power grid you would need to take 1.5 million homes off line at the same time. Not likely. If you need some extra power just like in the old days borrow it from your neighbor that went on vacation yesterday. With our country spanning 4 times zones we could easily generate power 10 /12 hrs per day. This method also can use much smaller more efficient storage batteries than the ones not invented for the big farms as of today. I know I am still an idiot, but this does not require any / "0" introduction of new technologies except maybe power transferring or smart grid technology to make power more effectively distributed. OUT OF THE BOX into your home in days, weeks or months not decades.

Orangebloodedal:

That would make a lot of sense, except for that 20k per household would have dropped in value severely as the banking institutions that held that money began to collapse and disappear without governmental backing. There are a few other reasons why the scheme wouldn't work. Firstly there isn't enough silicon currently in the hands of the world to do this. The initiative would require an entirely new infrastructure for the generation and production of panels and the collection of the materials inherent. The cost of silicon would skyrocket overnight, likely making the panels themselves far more expensive than they currently are which is doubly unfortunate given the vastly lessoned buying power of the american dollar at the time (Remember, this one done instead of the tarp). Thirdly, this is physically impossible. As much as 81% of the nation lives in cities and suburbs, while suburbs can take to solarization well cities can not, there is simply not enough sky per person in most major metropolitan cities. It could be done, but would require a pretty significant amount of civil and construction engineering, something that 20k per household could not accomplish.

Finally of course the windfarms are being produced overseas. Wind was not a particularly american obsession before the collapse and even with the renewable funding scheme it's taken a backseat to to methods of generation that could better fulfill the demographics of the country. You have a plan, it's just not a good one.

The shuma
There is enough sand (which contains Silicon) on the face of the Earth to cover the world in solar cells. Every gallon of paint and almost every pill you take contains SiO2 as filler.It is probably the most abundant element on Earth. Until now there has been no incentive to initiate refining of this material en masse into the silicon needed for such a massive endeavor. If there is money to be made there will be someone there to produce the material required. This in itself could spawn even more industries. Get your head out the past and look to the future.
As for the TARP printed money, most is still sitting in the banks and has never been released. As soon as they do "Hello inflation". Most collapes should have been allowed to occur. Those institutions that got it showed no increase in fiscal responsibility or accountability.
No significant jobs have been created with the money that was spent. We should have had a Marsall Plan for energy independence with all this money. All we and our prodigy will get is the "BILL"

Yup 2.25 trillion dollars producing less than 75 gigawatts baseload power. You forgot about nightime, winter, orientation, converters, and cloudy days and slipped a decimal point.

$2.25 trillion in nuclear power would give you 2250 gigawatts of baseload power. A much better investment.

I said that there isn't enough silicon in the hands of men to do this. Not underground. Of course there is lots of silicon, that doesn't meant that it's economically feasible without ensuing supply/demand cost exchanges. How about you look your head into the present before telling others to look into the future. You have to actually be able to do the things you suggest, not just want to live with them having been done. None of that particularly matters though, as you're right. The industries would be spawned. However much like most other manufacturing processes they would not be started domestically. There is nothing inherently difficult about silicon refinement, and as soon as the plants were made investors would buy elsewhere where it can be done more cheaply. It's illogical to believe that the "environmental industry" is one of production, as any sort of mass production would almost intrinsically be performed at cheaper expense overseas. It's mind bending to think that this is somehow immune to that omnipresent rule of modern economic globalization. That being a redistribution of economic effort to raise up local working populaces while at once more efficiently and cheaply producing goods for mass consumption.

The offshoring of the green agenda in this particular instance is simply due to a lack of produceable innovation in america. Once we start getting results from research we will begin to produce domestically, (Though not the constituent parts of whats produced). It may or may not come back in this specific area, but thats on the ingenuity of the learned american populace to decide.

As for the tarp, thats an entirely different discussion, which I would be happy to have but this is neither the form nor the place.

sethdayal
I agree with your bang for the buck. Thanks for correcting my math error. God put a lot of power in the atom. Fission is neither green nor renewable but is far better than fossil fuels. I am not advocating 100% solar as the current technology is not there, though if it were much more efficient I would. I know its current limitations. I know cities are not able to use solar for the biggest part of their power. I am just emphasizing the point that there is no comprehensive energy plan;just more government waste and corruption and WE the People lose again. Just give people who can the advantage of using solar because it can supplement the local grid especially in the South. Every watt of renewable energy is a step forward for our nation.

What they need to do is allow the solar or wind to be bought by the people and instaled by the people.

Make deals with, Walmart, Home Depot, and Lowe's to sell the pannels or small turbines. Make it simle so everyone will install it. Alot of the cost for anything is in the labor. Take out the labor or at least make it easier to install and there is more insentive to buy.

I am not one of those people stuck in the present saying Why? I am one of those looking to the future and saying Why not? There is economic reality but paradigms shifts can happen with one great idea. The digital watch is a great example and so is the transistor. Green / renewable energy may have the mantle to trigger the next shift. I agree with The Shuma on his economics of the present but this too shall pass. I just pray our nation has what it takes to be a leader in this shift and innovate with a new vigor. If not we too may pass from the great nation we have become.

Edison fought against A/C power, it was Tesla that advocated it, and invented the first a/c motor... Edison demonstrated how wrong A/C was by electrocuting an elephant, which video can be found online...

exactly what i thought would happen, all the green tech manufacturing jobs like turbines and solar panels would be created in china. this countries economy is doomed

There is a large wind energy company based in Colorado. Vestas from Europe. This could have been produced here. I agree with orangebloodedal the bang for the buck we got out of the government dumping borrowed money at this was small. Instead of using it as a cover to pay back the groups who helped elected you, could have used it to fund research. Thin film solar, more efficient smart grid and small scale production and storage at home and a 1000 more ideas that could be looked into.

The carbon tax instead about being green, its about controlling the means of production. If they were interested in making things better, a simple call to America's ingenuity and the positives of America like jfk did for the moon shot would have produced more tangible good than a trillion in borrowed money.

It's true that this is not money well spent for a green America. Nuclear power is the best alternative, especially stage IV nuclear power plants which can produce superheated 1860 degree steam to break water into hydrogen and oxygen. Then you have the electricity for home lighting and the energy to power are cars forever. But you have too many 'non-green' environmentalists hell bent on stopping nuclear forever when it's the best alternative for the environment. Stupid choice by stupid people making stupid decisions.

you sound like you really looked into this...I hope you are blessed for your passion and insight

meant for orangebloodedal

I can't believe that I signed up, just to comment on this story. I have to agree with orangebloodedal. They are on to something. The U.S. is blessed with innumerable resources for green energy. There is the sunbelt, 2 mountain ranges for geothermal, and a massive prairie perfect for wind farms. Not to mention the Gulf stream for tidal farms. We also have a large area of desert, perfect for silicon refinement. With smart, out of the box thinking and investment, we could probably have already taken significant dips into our reliance on other countries to fuel our tech and energy supplies. We can make plastics from algae now even. No need for petroleum any more. At all.

Sunbelt- solar arrays, both along highway systems and in open fields that if built correctly can also allow farming of those same fields. Plus there is the Atlantic and Pacific ocean current systems, along with the Gulf of Mexico. Wouldn't be hard to harvest the tidal energy from these for coastal cities, where most of the U.S. population is.

Prairie- solar and wind farms. Both can inhabit farmland with very minimal interference. See the Netherlands or Denmark for an example.

Colder/ darker regions like the northern states- geothermal. There are 2 significant mountain ranges in the U.S. that can be drilled not for coal, but for the thermal heat from the earth's mantle. A couple of bores into Pennsylvania can easily power most of that region. Same for the Seattle area.

When used in conjuction on a national smart grid, only one state would be left out. Hawaii. But then they have an abundance of active volcanoes (obvious geothermal), so no real worry!

I will now be accepting votes into office to replace the dummies we have now :)

OK, let's be clear. If T. Booone Pickens is involved, it's a SCAM. The wind power farm is a SCAM. Pickens is only in it for the MONEY. If you check, you will find that IF you try and power up witn "wind power" you have to have STANDBY power plants up and running. Because when the wind STOPS, something has to come on line INSTANTLY or you have a brownout. IOW, you will have the reliability of Iraq. Now it may not bother you to have Oprah flicker on and off a few times every show, but BUSINESS won't stand for it. So with "wind power" there IS NO SAVINGS. It's a SCAM. As is the whole globull warming SCAM. That is just to make Algore more MONEY.

Yes orangebloodedal... I am imagining 150,000,000 homes generating 5KW each.

A friend of mine just installed such a system last month.
The final cost was just under $100K (originally it was only supposed to cost $60K, but costs just kept adding up).

Of course, the US taxpayer (and the Chinese government bond holders) paid for $30K of it. Thank heavens we don't have Federal debts or deficits.

And the taxpayers of the Virginia paid another $12K of it, even though we are forced to lay off teachers and close rest rooms on the interstates.

And the Dominion Electric ratepayers will be forced by law to pay 50cents/KW-hr for this marvelously green electricity that a nuclear plant generates for 1.3 cents/kw-hr. THINK OF THE SAVINGS!!

So those 150 million homes like my friend's would cost 15 TRILLION dollars. Chump change indeed.

And lets say those 150 million homes needed new batteries every 5 years... that's another couple of trillion dollars.

And inverters, they only last 10-15 years or so. So let's send another trillion to China for those.

And every 20-30 years, we have to replace the solar panels for another few trillion.

But think of the green jobs in battery recycling - which we all know is wonderful, safe and clean industry.

Green is a religion, not a serious form of energy (at present).

fiftycal
Help me out here. Why else would T. Boone Pickens or anyone else build something if not for a profit? For charity?

I understand it is cheaper to get these items from China, just once it would be nice for a company to do the right thing and not the cheap thing. I understand they have a "bottom line" and shareholders and all the other reasons businesses have used to send work and manufacturing to China. At what point will these businesses do the right thing for the country? Of course a lot of this is our fault, we want the best for the cheapest price we can find it. I have a little game I play called, Don't buy Chinese. When I have the opportunity I buy items made just about anywhere other than China. It is a challenge and when I do find something not made in China, I'll often buy it even if I don't need it right at that moment. Maybe if we were all willing to spend a little more for items NOT made in China, these companies would get the message and start to invest in this country.

Truly the right thing would be to forget about our country having to be better than their country, and buying wind turbines from whoever can best meet the demand - which in this case is China. Buying wind turbines from China is not only the cheap thing at this point, it is the Right thing and the cheap thing to do. Only making purchases like this and showing American manufacturers that they'll have to step it up to gain some market share will benefit this country in any way.

I love that this article was written by Jeremy Hsu.
Did popsci outsource their science writing to China also?!?!
Haha - clearly China just knows more about technology!

Never fear, GE Chairman/CEO Jeffrey Immelt, joined with Dear Leader to push the global warming scam to sell GE wind turbines, solar panels and cells, hybrid locomotive engines, etc.

www.appinsys.com/GlobalWarming/GW_Summary.htm

greenhellblog.com/2009/09/10/ge-lawyer-to-become-top-federal-environmental-lawyer/

While I agree that we currently do not have the requisite available funds in place for mass solar, or wind, that would be enough to fill our needs AND pay for itself, the simplest way is also the most effective and cheapest. A geothermal plant on Mt St Helens. We got lakes nearby, and can channel to the ocean nearby for more. The hot water, what we don't convert at the plant, can easily be piped to any of the nearby cities that are close enough to the mntn to get it there still hot, with insulated pipeline, of course.(it is mountains, so it's fairly cold) Fairly being the neat word. This mountain is not cold, not like a glacier, there is normally not even a lot of snow on it except in the winter. Rivers on two sides, and only 40 miles by air to the ocean, maybe less. The destruction plain is tailor made flatland, perfect for the various facilities that would logically be close for efficiency. I can go on, but it would be easier to show anyone willing to look. Perhaps the best of all, we here in Washington have been burned by a massive energy scam, and we ain't goin for it again. Then there's TBoone. We also dealt with him handily, too; when he was poised to make a raid on Boeing. We shut him down in two days. On a weekend, no less. I also have a plan that would pay for about 20 mil a yr of the construction, but I am not gonna give it up without something real. But it is functionally simple, using existing tech, and is self perpetuating, with little to no cost after startup. It would pay for itself in 2 yrs, all in, with profit going out at the same time.

China doesn't know about technology. What they're good about is copying technology.

Damn why can't the United States build these solar turbines and solar cells on our own. There are millions of unemployed people who are probably willing to work with lower pay.

And it's time to build new nuclear power plants with safer technology and proper storage.

These companies and the government need to guard these innovations and technologies better to have the advantage.

Seems to me the new administration have no clue about what they're doing. We are $105 Trillion in debt and all they want to do is spend spend spend nonsense crap.

With only $15 Trillion GDP how are we suppose to pay the debt. I just hope the US$ doesn't go down in value too badly.

Whether or not it makes sense to build wind farms, we still should be building the majority of our equipment in the United States(God Bless America). We are accepting shoddy work from some of the foreign countries only because the product is cheaper. However, in the long run, it has cost us much, much more. Just look at the baby food and the drywall from China!! Who is going to pay for this? Few jobs and people to pay taxes and have pride in America is the result from spending all that money out of the country.

Good debate but all in vain. If there is money to be made
someone will do it. With our current administraton it will not be us.

With the constant bickering and finger pointing America is hell bent on self destruction as a country. It needs to choose a path and stick to it--just like the french did in regards to nuclear power (which makes up over 75% of it's electrical needs). Green energy is a solution but not if we don't implement a choice and stick to it. Every 4 years our stupid political system dismantles what the previous one started. That alone is going to be the death of this country if we don't implement a path of energy independence that is viable and stick to it. We can't be changing the game plan every 4 years. Otherwise were just spinning our wheels and making more greedy profit for oil companies, etc and our banks are going to run dry. Then that's it folks you have nuclear armageddon by trying to take things by force or complete capitulation and social war. Take your choice people. Either agree to make a new constitutional amendment that can't be changed by congress whims or cease to exist as a country.

Brian P.
I think it stinks that the US can't build wind turbines for a decent price. Apparently, corporate America won't consider it if there isn't a large profit in doing it. I know nuke power plants make more bang for the buck but those are expensive too.

Texas likely has state laws that require construction contracting to the lowest bidder. It's cute to think that China is just there to catch our evil texan corporate money, but it's just like making a shirt. They can do it a hell of a lot cheaper, it's not hard to do, and even with the costs of transport its still cheaper than producing in the U.S. where people expect to be able to live off of their income (income disparity and real buying power of currency are what is the crux of this issue, not evil chinese labor or a cheap administration). Cry about the current administration all you want, but this is been going on for years and the only finger that should be pointed is at chinas artificially low currency and the weak willed previous administrations globilization policies towards the chinese regime (outsourced american labor under Bush made up a majority of chinese job market growth for both of his terms). Abandon the dream of an American industrial economy, it's dead. It's not coming back. Trade protectionism in this area wouldn't serve to help the U.S. economy in the long or short term, and thats all anyone in this comment line seems to be suggesting. Reorienting the economy to a self sufficient green model isn't about bringing back overpayed factory jobs (They are never coming back as long as asia and africa have cheaper standards of living), it's about creating a level of actual self sufficiency in the infrastructure of America, precisely so that we won't be so controlled by foreign speculation and investment.

Apparently, Popsci enjoys delivering a completely biased article in order to infuriate the ignorant. The below is the DOW JONES article which will answer everyone's rants and raves... hopefully.

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- A joint venture between Chinese and U.S. companies Thursday announced plans for a $1.5 billion, 600-megawatt wind farm in west Texas.
Although much of the funding will come from Chinese financiers, part of the project's capital will also come from the Obama administration's stimulus package in the form of loan guarantees and grants.
The wind farm, expected to be one of the largest in the country, may help to highlight a recent administration talking point: the U.S. risks losing the competitive edge in the renewable energy sector if Congress doesn't approve climate and clean energy legislation.
The 240 2.5-megawatt wind turbines will be manufactured in China, with shipments starting in March. The farm is expected to be online in 2011.
While financing and major parts will come from China, the technology will come from U.S. and European firms. The venture's main firms include the private equity group U.S. Renewable Energy Group, Texas-based Cielo Wind Power LP, China's Shenyang Power Group and A-Power Energy Generation Systems (APWR). It will use technology from General Electric Co. (GE), FUHRLANDER AG, and Norwin.
The city of Shenyang's vice mayor, Yang Yazhou, said the project "would demonstrate for the first time Chinese capital, manufacturing and engineering expertise exported to the U.S."
Joe Stark, vice president of finance and business development at Cielo, said without the stimulus funding the joint venture wouldn't be possible. "Thanks to the strong policy push and a recovering financing environment, wind projects in the U.S. are attracting developers and investors alike once again," he said.
Financing for wind power all but dried up in the credit crunch and subsequent recession. Since many U.S. wind financiers and developers were running losses on their balance sheets, they couldn't take advantage of tax credits for renewable energy production.

To all the people wondering why the US cannot produce this wind turbine equipment domestically: we can, but it is hard for so-called "greedy" American companies to make a profit because in America we have the 2nd highest corporate tax rate in the world. Why are companies relocating their operations to foreign countries? Cheap labor is part of it, but our confiscatory tax policy on corporations is probably the bigger issue. Why build stuff here and give the government 39% of their income when they can relocate to other countries where the tax rate is 24% or less? Throw in the other heavy hand of government with mountains of rules, regulations, etc. + having to deal with labor unions in a lot of states and the the US has become a fairly unattractive place to do business.

I didn't realize Al Gore had investments in China.

This deal is wrong for so many reasons it's hard to know where to begin or end. First of all the Dow Jones piece is obviously a PR job for someone. Just a couple of examples of PR double speak are:
"a recent administration talking point: the U.S. risks losing the competitive edge in the renewable energy sector if Congress doesn't approve climate and clean energy legislation"
Another one:
"While financing and major parts will come from China, the technology will come from U.S. and European firms."
sort of contradicts this:
""The city of Shenyang's vice mayor, Yang Yazhou, said the project "would demonstrate for the first time Chinese capital, manufacturing and engineering expertise exported to the U.S.""

The morons who approved this deal think that if they get the Chinese to fund one big project and it's a success then Congress will get off their collective fat asses and pass more laws. Great, or is it? How about the millions if not billions this project is going to suck right out of the US economy and put directly into the hands of our largest debt holders? Is it me or does anyone else see this?

We fund our obscene debt with bonds sold to China who also happens to be our largest deficit trading partner (they sell us a huge amount of stuff more than we sell them) And once this project is up and running the money generated will go to them as well. This is a very very bad idea on many fronts. These are just a few - and let me close with the idea that I really, truly, honestly and angrily don't want my tax dollars and the US debt Obama is piling up on the next three generations to go to the Chinese. How does tossing the Chinese yet another few hundred million stimulate our economy?
Oh yeah, do a search for news regarding US companies who have tried outsourcing to China and are now pulling out. On of the big reasons is no quality control. The Chinese have no sense of doing anything well - these turbines will fall apart long before their time.
I for one am sick and tired of the government that is supposed to represent us doing whatever they damn well please to serve their own interests. It makes no difference who is in office - they are all equally guilty.

I didn't aware Al Gore have investments in China! how come?
Please visit www.eye-contact-lenses.com

I imagine the amount of fossil fuels burned just to get them shipped here will add years of service to the turbines needed to break even on their carbon footprint.

There are 3 classes people:

Atheists
Republicans
Ignorants

"Ignorants" fit these subcatagories:

Obama supportes
"Green" science & tech supporters
other psyphotic folk

GREEN IS FAKE!!!
FAKE, FAKE, FAKE!!!

Over the years I have become sick of explaining what crap that the government spills out...Obama was the last straw...I have decided those fools are not worth saving
and can reccomend several books such as Mark Levins "Liberty and Tyranny" which I know few of those ignorants have the mental capacity understand the book. But it helps clear away this political grime his up without having to type up 10 pages worth of rebbuting to all this bullshit propaganda.

It's a damn shame American companies are not tooled up to handle making lots of wind turbines. Where are the American jobs promised in all of this?

I know a few $million$ is not going to boot the American turbine industry, but it sure would be nice if they could get 50% of the business. They really should of gone gong ho on this by now. I have an even BETTER idea. Why can't they build the horizontal type, so they do not kill as many birds? The BEST design I like it the one design that looks like a DNA protein spiral rising into the air. It is multi-directional, and on its vanes, they install solar cells that are sensitive to infrared, so it can make electricity in the afternoon on a cloudy day, or after sunset. Also, why can't we build the really huge horizontal wind turbines like they do in China, where the generator is on the ground, so weight is not a problem? These tall turbines seem cool, but I think horizontal ones can be put together at much lower cost, especially the megawatt variety.

its likely such project is a bit expensive but very beneficial and ecofriendly .. Renewable kind of power source could greatly minimize pollution and more far better than fossil kind of power source.

We should not be taking this to China, who is already showing us up in just about everything. We need to have these turbines domestically built.

And to orangebloodedal: it is not realistic to go completely solar. First of all, who said it was dependable? And second,who says that everyone would want to do that?