GE Can't Make Wind Turbines Fast Enough
by John Laumer, Philadelphia 
on 04.15.08
Can you imagine a GE teleconference with stock analysts where the implication is that GE didn't see the Green Wave coming early enough, maybe should have put more capital into meeting the present demand for alternative energy technology?
The wind turbine shortage is growing, General Electric has confirmed. The industrial conglomerate said in its conference call with analysts last Friday that the backlog of wind turbines--i.e. orders that have booked but can't ship--has grown to $12 billion. That's up from $11 billion in the fourth quarter and more than twice the size of the backlog in the first quarter a year ago.
Where are those Free Enterprise Action Fund guys when you need their ranting:
Left-wing social and political activists are harnessing the power, resources and influence of publicly-owned corporations to advance their social and political agendas.See also::Can You Spare a Wind Turbine, Man? AND Revenge of the Free Market Utopians
Via::CNet News, "GE confirms that wind turbine supply is getting worse" Image credit::OnTapBlog, GE Wind Turbine Generator
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Maybe it's because GE doesn't want to make them fast enough... wouldn't it impede on super start GE nuke salesman Jim Rice's ability to sell all these wonderful GE nuclear reactors?
This is actually great news.
At ~$1/W, this means that there is a demand for 12GW of power. Nothing to scoff at.
This should be an excellent opportunity for old factories. Many of the old/mothballed Ford/GM/Chrysler automotive factories have the necessary infrastructure to turn out components for turbines. It would be a win-win to see these factories re-tooled for this purpose.
Oh, Remy, don't be such a conspiracy theorist. Companies are happy to cannibalize their own sales, as long as they're making profit SOMEWHERE.
That said, I'd be curious to see the profit margins for their nuclear cores (of which they sell only a very small number, mostly a separate market from wind) as opposed to their turbines.
Vestas (Danish) is building a wind turbine plant near here and have hired 250 of the projected 650 employees. Recent radio spots claim that Vestas is installing a wind turbine generator every four hours somewhere in the world.
We also have a local natural gas powered electrical facility that was formerly nuclear. The fuel rods are still stored there, which is the bane of 'clean' nuclear.
Well considering that Jeff Immelt had to drag a lot of investors kicking and screaming to the Econmagination program, I would say that GE is way ahead of the renewable energy wave. That's like saying the solar energy buisness should have foseen what was going to happen in Germany--nobody could have.
Probably the other renewable energy tech that has supprised the shit out of everybody is solar thermal. It seems another >100 MW plant is starting construction every few weeks. It's pretty exciting stuff.
It really is fantastic news that there's this much demand for wind power!
All,
I am an engineer in the water infrastructure business. I have been helping on some solar design projects for a major water provider in SoCal and we are also looking into wind.
Our general understanding now is that the federal tax incentive is key here. They guys who are developing new wind farms are funding with venture capital and Wall Street. The power is sold back to power companies via PPAs. What allows a reasonable rate of return over the life of the project in the enhanced investment tax incentive. The feds pay for 30% of the construction cost. Once this expires it goes back to the std. 10%. This regression basically blows away the rate of return for the project and that is why everyone is scared to build $100 million plants to in the face of this major uncertainty. Right now the risks are too great for companies like GE to go all out with building plants. It looks like if the feds could extend it another 8 years, wind/solar could get over the hump and the US would have some real economy of scale to the point where the credit would not be necessary to remain profitable. Hopefully they would build in tiered incentives for different types of renewables that are still emerging like tidal/wave.
Now if we could only cut incentives for oil and move them to renewables…. I hope this was helpful and I look forward to a brighter day with you all in 2009.