These numbers thrown about by the wind folks crack me up. 2.5 MW nameplate capacity, 98% ability of the turbine to capture available wind … c’mon people! The turkeys just don’t work!
GE says they see a $130 Billion jump in turbine sales by 2012. Now, that’s a number they’re probably as accurate with as any, since sales figures rely on how much of the people’s tax money the governments want to pass out to these contraption manufacturers and, after all, the wind industry’s best marketeers are elected officials.
Well, enough of that! Read this piece at Business Week/Bloomberg about GE’s projections. Oh, yeah … then slip over to CNET to hear Jeff Immelt, the President’s buddy, whine about not seeing enough of your money and how he thinks the best arrangement is federal government oversight over the entire grid, rather than the states, and tens of billions of dollars.
Allegheny Treasures 
Here’s what I said in March of 2009 in Italy about GE’s CEO and the Obama Administration:
“America under the Obama administration seems poised to push wind big time. It appears in thrall to the public relations rhetoric of the wind industry as it connects to the gush of know-nothing environmental groups. Consider Mr. Obama’s recent appointment of Jeffrey Immelt, the CEO of General Electric, to his Economic Advisory Board. GE is the fourth largest producer of wind equipment in the world, and has been seeking to exploit its wind projects ever since it bought Enron’s installations during the latter company’s bankruptcy. In addition to the $4.26 million GE spent in direct lobbying efforts during the last quarter, it likely has paid ten times that amount on a vast, coordinated television wind advertising campaign that began with the discuss thrower throughout NBC’s Olympic coverage (some might not know that NBC is owned by GE) and has continued to the present with GE’s Wizard of Oz scarecrow commercial, who touts the smart grid with a chummy jingle.
“Hoping to reverse his company’s present economic nosedive by getting a share of the nearly trillion dollars the president has dedicated over the next decade for climate change initiatives, Immelt now seeks a national carbon cap and trade policy, forcing companies to pay for the right to emit greenhouse gasses. He does not mention that his company’s power portfolio contains mostly dirty burning coal plants that will continue under this plan to burn dirty while GE reaps the tax sheltering available from its wind plants, which pose no competition to coal. These are so lucrative that Florida Power and Light, America’s third largest utility and the owner of the country’s largest stock of wind projects, has paid no federal income tax for the last five years, despite having revenues in the billions—almost wholly because of wind subsidies.”
The present situation wasn’t hard to predict.
Trading with the Dragon, trading our economy and quality of life….
Thinking about investing in G.E? Sometimes you need to question what is going on and who is in charge.
First recognize GE or any wind energy knows exactly what is occuring.
A bit of history:
In May 2002, General Electric purchased Enron Wind’s wind turbine manufacturing business. GE primary purpose is only to capture their share of the an artificial wind energy market.
Today:
For Sale: 30 discounted units of brand new General Electric GE Wind Turbines – GE 2.5MW Wind Turbines For Sale! – Excluding Towers.
Great opportunity for the serious wind energy investor or Wind Farm developer who is looking for immediately available large industrial 2.5MW wind turbines.
30 brand new units of the magnificent GENERAL ELECTRIC GE 2.5MW immediately available. These Wind Turbines had been shipped to Asia in 2008 and are currently in storage at the original destination port in Asia. All 30 units are still readily packaged and can be shipped world wide immediately.
The turbines have never been in operation and come without towers. $US 2.1m per unit –
http://www.mywindpowersystem.com/marketplace/30-x-brand-new-ge-wind-turbines-ge2-5mw-wind-turbines-for-sale-available-immediately/
Did someone miscount the extra turbines that arrived in China?
May 14, 2009, the headline stories read: How GE Became a Green Pioneer in China From wind turbines to advanced power plants, China is a big consumer of General Electric products
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_21/b4132043813447.htm
13 Jan 2010, the headline: GE to provide 88 wind turbines for China’s wind energy projects.
http://www.tradingmarkets.com/news/stock-alert/ge_ge-to-provide-88-wind-turbines-for-china-s-wind-energy-projects-699673.html
So did GE really miscount in shipping their 30 Wind turbines? The short answer is NO.
GE Wind Industry Company is shifting their resources to get the best economical gain, because the industry is unregulated.
What they are doing is shifting their profits to off shore tax heavens for tax sheltering and avoiding their tax obligations. All this is completed using paper.
It is legal. What is occuring is abusive tax sheltering, use of inverted tariff for tax avoidance. GE represents a company that tops the list for avoiding tax payments and their obligations to a country that supports them.
It is no surprise that the economy is a mess. Investment firms are not accountable. The wind energy is hoping for tax benefits, and investments. By shipping the turbines to Asia and then shipping back to the United States they avoid tax payments, there are lots of good deals for exporting and importing these goods back and forth…Meanwhile the consumer is paying while the wind industry uses federal economic stimulus and state tax benefits to fool and promtoe an industry rerpesents high costs and little social benefits.