Moving on up…

The good news is that installed wind generation capacity in Idaho now exceeds 100 MW, the bad news is that we’re 24th in the nation in installed capcity but 13th in the nation for potential.

WindPower09 Continued

Today is the last day of the windpower conference (but not the last day for me in Chicago, I’ve got an all-day meeting tomorrow, more on that later).  I took some pictures on the exhibition floor today.  I stopped by the Garrad Hassan booth to visit with a former student, Melissa Elkinton.  She volunteered to take a shot to prove that I was there.

Here I am...

Here are a few other shots of the action.

General Electric always has a big presnese here:

As does Suzlon.  Suzlon is the company that manufactured the turbines that were most recently erected along I-84 near Mountain Home.  They’re impressive 2.1 MW machines.

Two other companies worth mentioning are Nordic Windpower, they’ve just openned an assembly plant in Pocatello, making them the first turbine manufacturer with an Idaho presense.

Finally, I should mention Southwest Windpower. They’re headquartered in Flagstaff and they make a very nice little 2.4 kW turbine for home use, the Skystream.  This is the model we use in the Wind for Schools program.

One industry that’s growing!

Welcome to Windpower!

Greetings from Chicago, host of the 2009 Windpower confernece.  Every year the American Wind Energy Assoicationg sponsors a conference and invites the movers and shakers of the wind energy business to come together.  (And a few academics sneak in the back door!)  There are sessions on many topics that are important to wind farm developers, utilities and regulators, but the real action is on the exhibit floor.

This conference has seen phenomenal growth, from a respectabel 7000 folks in LA back in 2007, jumping to 14,000 in Houston last year.  This year, they had to hastily re-schedule the even because they feared the convention center in Minneaoplis might not accomodate any growth.

That turned out to be a good call.  There are over 20,000 attendees at this event, over 1200 exhibitors.  Here’s snapshot of the exhibit floor in McCormack Center.

Exhibition Floor of Windpower2009, 1200+ exhibitors!

On the floor, you can talk to people who will sell you everything from a 3 Megawatt wind trubine to hydraulic tools used to tighten the bolts to saftey harnesses for climbing the towers.  Truly staggering.

The Hops Grow Fast!

The previous post about growing an external shade showed the our hops growing up in front of our east-facing windows. I snapped another shot of the windows yesterday, just 4 days later. Here’s a quick comparison to show just how fast these critters climb!

May 1, 2009

External Shade, 27 April

May 1st; 300 Miles and Counting

Today, as I was running to/from meetings on campus, my odometer (reset on January 1 of this year) hit the 300 mile mark!

300 Miles and Counting

I’m hoping to hit over 1000 miles for the year, but so far, I’m only on track for 900.  On the other hand, we’re still in the rainy season, and my rate is definitely picking up.

Stay tuned!