General contractors: These are the companies that run the construction show. They schedule the crews and equipment, build the roads and foundations, erect the turbines, and conduct the turbine commissioning, a sort of final inspection before the turbines are turned over to their owner. Most construction costs come from roads because wind farms are generally…
Wind turbines in the darnedest places
Not long ago, most of the windy places in the U.S. were in the Great Plains. Now, a much larger part of the country has been found to have turbine-worthy wind. What happened? “What happened is the development of wind maps at 80 and 100 m,” says AWEA’s Deputy Director for Community Wind Larry Flowers.…