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1998-2008, wind capacity in Spain grew, on average, 37% annually.  In Germany, this figure was 25%.

Annual installations peaked in Germany in 2002, in Spain in 2007. The growth curves were similar, that's a phase delay. But what both show is the superiority of feed-in laws over certification systems (as used in Denmark or the UK).

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.

by DoDo on Mon Feb 1st, 2010 at 05:45:09 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I still think that the Spanish win this one.  The industry cluster based in the northeast (read Bilbao) have diversified into a variety of other clean energy fields.  For example, Gamesa just test ran a 4.5 MW model that's probably meant for offshore.  This same cluster contains shipyards that are under a lot of stress.  When the initial burst of wind farm construction occurred in Spain, the Basques used their lead (Gamesa) in this area in order to resuscitate their ailing steel and machine tools industries.  It worked. They haven't expanded, but machine tool employment has held steady.  

I suspect that the plan is to do the same thing using the shipbuilding cluster with offshore work.  Also, the region is at the forefront of marine energy.  Portugal had the largest project currently, but there are projects using bouys at Santona. (Sorry it's in Spanish.)

And there's a really cool project using wind pressure from breakwaters.

There's the grand policy here with tariffs and such, and then there's regional industrial policy based around using the local government to facilitate the development of industrial clusters with backward and forward links.  The backward links mean that they breath new life into industries that are on the decline.  Forward links means that they open the door to other types of new industries. Like the wind energy cluster around Bilbao did for offshore wind and marine energy.  There's even some hope that the solar industry will be able to link into the mirror production that's in place to supply the auto industry in the area.

I ramble.  This is going to be my dissertation.

And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage-Billy Bragg

by ManfromMiddletown (manfrommiddletown at lycos dot com) on Mon Feb 1st, 2010 at 06:09:38 PM EST
[ Parent ]
What you describe in the first paragraph happened in Denmark and Northern Germany, too.

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.
by DoDo on Mon Feb 1st, 2010 at 06:30:02 PM EST
[ Parent ]
The reasons that Spain is more interesting to me are a little more esoteric.  It's an example of a region that started to behave differently than the rest of the country, and then the rest of the country followed.  It seems to be a good model for rusted out industrial districts (like the Great Lakes region in the US).  It's fascinating at a theoretical level, so it's a good topic to write a dissertation on because it's something  that people might cite.  And that's the currency of the American professor.  

And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage-Billy Bragg
by ManfromMiddletown (manfrommiddletown at lycos dot com) on Mon Feb 1st, 2010 at 07:00:13 PM EST
[ Parent ]
It seems to be a good model for rusted out industrial districts (like the Great Lakes region in the US)

I suggest that in that context, you to look at and add the examples in Eastern Germany. Like at the Great Lakes region, flat land and not much off-shore in Brandenburg or Sachsen-Anhalt, but wind installations expanded rapidly, Enercon was first to build a wind turbine factory in the local 'rust belt', and there is in particular a large number of new photovoltaics companies and factories.

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.

by DoDo on Tue Feb 2nd, 2010 at 04:56:35 AM EST
[ Parent ]
has it ever happened, that a solar panel factory was actually powered by a windpower installation?

great combo/use of real estate.

~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Thu Feb 4th, 2010 at 02:44:38 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Why not power it with solar power seeing most work is done during daylight?  I've heard of building workers going off site because of excessive rain/snow, but would you want solar power workers heading home any time there is no wind?  

In Ireland solar power workers would go on strike in protest against excessive wind if it meant they hand to work too hard... runs... (ok, racist, classist, post colonial, bourgeois propaganda, but what the hell - we go home on a sunny day (to save the harvest) because the sun shines so rarely)

notes from no w here

by Frank Schnittger (mail Frankschnittger at hot dotty communists) on Thu Feb 4th, 2010 at 03:01:53 PM EST
[ Parent ]
it's not a solar factory, but Deutsche WindGuard's wind tunnel is powered by an Enercon E-82 in the parking lot.  Here's a view from the rear, showing one of the two throats.



"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin

by Crazy Horse on Thu Feb 4th, 2010 at 04:49:08 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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