surprised to learn there were any offshore farms, much less the UK currently has the largest suspect 'windfarms' are a long way behind solar but are the companies behind the farms up and coming ? - mostly in Europe ? "The eight lines of turbines, running north-west to south-east, cover a total area of 35sq km off Foreness Point near Margate. With 100 turbines, each 115 metres high with 44-metre blades, it can generate 300 megawatts (MW) of power â enough for 200,000 homes." http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/sep/23/thanet-windfarm-bright-future-green-industry via link in article "Blow to UK green techonology industry as less than 20% of £900m investment in Thanet windfarm goes to British firms. . . . The biggest single contract for the Thanet farm off the coast of Kent has gone to Vestas of Denmark, the turbine manufacturer that closed its only UK blade-making facility on the Isle of Wight last year."
The sad shit is Americans still think they're #1 in something...... Well, ok I guess Hollywood is still one "industry" left. US solar energy "competitiveness"... http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/25/business/energy-environment/25solar.html Another "American" wind farm manufacturer... http://www.goldwindglobal.com/web/index.do
oh-ohhhh! 'The Thanet wind farm will milk us of billions' "In all the publicity given to the opening of "the world's largest wind farm" off the Kent coast last week, by far the most important and shocking aspect of this vast project was completely overlooked. Over the coming years we will be giving the wind farm's Swedish owners a total of £1.2 billion in subsidies. That same sum, invested now in a single nuclear power station, could yield a staggering 13 times more electricity, with much greater reliability. . . . The total amount of electricity the turbines actually produce will equate to the average electricity usage not of 240,000 homes, but of barely half that number. . . . Our electricity supply companies are obliged to buy offfshore wind energy at three times its normal price, so that each kilowatt hour of electricity receives a 200 per cent subsidy of £100. . . . Even the Queen, we learn, tried to claim a "fuel poverty" allowance for her soaring electricity bills, which have risen 50 per cent in the past year. . . . one of the greatest scams of our age." and the informed 'Comments' http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/...hanet-wind-farm-will-milk-us-of-billions.html
"Google Inc has thrown its financial clout behind an ambitious $5 billion proposed electric transmission line intended to spark investment in new wind farms off the heavily populated U.S. East Coast." http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE69B4NU20101012