Comments on: GE reshapes the future of wind power

How to make wind 10 percent of electricity generation? Funky-shaped turbine blades, high-tech materials, and smarter grid connections, says GE's head of wind research.

[Manhattan2]

Anyone studying renewable power solutions needs to at least look at the core of the Solar Transfer concept before they proceed. It is our goal to make as much of the renewable investments that people are willing to make go to the greater good. The greater good in this case is higher power return on that same invested dollar. That will mean shorter payoff periods for the end-users and a 2-4 fold improvement on CO2 reductions over the life of your investment. While our solutions are just months away from being deployed it is the volunteers like myself, whose responsibility it is to make sure people think twice or even three times before they jump into solar or wind power. There is a better way. It can already be deployed today, but in a few short months you will see why we have been trying our hardest to keep you informed without releasing our engineering design. [e-mail] .

[RompStar_420]

Wow, we need to install one of these in our neck of the woods, it would power a lot of our homes.

[edwards111]

There?s going to be turmoil in the wind turbine industry as demand skyrockets. The world?s 5th largest turbine maker, India?s Suzlon Energy, is facing complaints that its blades are defective, and the complaints are coming from U.S. buyers. Siting issues are always going to be an issue, also, because industrial-size 5-megawatt wind generators require about a third of an acre each. Marketers are buying up web domains like SitingWindTurbines.com and ProfitFromWind.com to push their products, educate potential customers and dispel false conceptions about quality, safety, aesthetics, etc. There are going to be a lot of companies (from Fortune 1000 to start-ups) jumping into the wind energy business, and a lot of them are going to mess up and fail. Wind is sort of the new gold rush.

[fokkwp]

GE, get your *ss in gear, send 100 lobbyists to Congress, spend $250M in campaign contributions emphasizing wind power subsidy support, and cut the techno crap. Just get it moving before we lose the planet. Big oil can buy the body politic, and so can you. Leave the pretty stuff to the little startups - be like MicroSoft and just wait for them to get some good gear going then buy 'em up; get the 100-year leases on wind prairies, get your monopoly going. Forget the supply-and-demand junk - at your size you need to be creating markets, not fitting into them. Fire the nice-guy greenies in your company and set loose the solid corporate a-h*les and get moving.

[allanhallat]

I have to agree with you fokkwp, governement is still ruled by politicians whose pockets are lined with money from special groups like big oil and it is not doing enough to research ways in storing alernative energy and more effectively creating it. They have no interest in things that do not make them money until it is too late and they will just blame it on something else. Thats politician for you to take praise in the good, line your pockets, scratch my back and I'll scratch yours, and blame something else when things go wrong. Read more on wind generators on this site http://www.poweredgenerators.com/wind-power-generators.html

[physloon]

Oh yes, Manhattan2. It has been a while. For the last year or so you have been shilling for this solar transfer. The solar transfer web site is about as useless as possible. Enough with the spam. We both know that if this was some new revolutionary energy generation method it would be patented and you would be raising venture capital. You're not doing either so you are a scam or a bunch of morons.

[Manhattan2]

Not a scam. Time will tell if we are morons. We are in no rush. The value of our work is timeless. Both presidential candidates seem to be more prone to the technologies we will reveal. How you can compete with oil prior to it running out will always be the issue. We are talking about competing without subsidies and we are almost there. Price goes up we are there but what is to keep them (Big Oil) from simply lowering the price. Part of our plan may be to lock in oil prices so the planet can come out ahead.

[ecotour]

Has anyone heard about the Canadian study that wind turbines' low pressure is killing off huge numbers of bats? Apparently their lungs burst when they come close to the low pressure area. Unfortunately our attempts to solve one problem (reliance on fossil fuels) is putting these bug eating friends in danger of extinction. Is anyone
a) aware of this study/problem and
b) is there a way to help prevent bat/turbine interaction?

Roger D, Florida (where solar panels should be on every roof)

[Iheartenergy]

What do you define as large numbers of bats? Do you value the life of a bat over the lives of many humans? I agree, we need to take care of the animals and plants in this world, but in an energy crisis which scientists can solve with ideas like wind energy, I think we, as humans should put human life first and then protect our animal friends. Besides, wouldn't bats be smart enough to realize that in certain areas they are not able to fly? Thats just my opinion.