on devices is a minor point at present. Jerome's point about government policy viz. tariff and tax is more important. The spending for machines is exploding in all of the high-value resource areas, such as the Oregon/Washington border, east of the Cascades. The banks may be constipated, but energy, manufacturing, and newly-formed operating companies are making deals and finding funds at boom rates out here.

I was in a meeting two weeks ago, where the discussion was focused on: 1) a new grid system to handle 'green' energy for certification and transmission efficiency purposes; and 2) off-peak pumping of water into uphill storage for peak-hour generation via hydro-turbines. (Turns out that Sherman County, OR ran a geological/geographical survey in 1961 to map likely storage areas. The rep from there had to search the archives in the basement of his county's courthouse to find the records.)

Vestas is on a fast-track to build manufacturing capacity here. In addition our community college in The Dalles, OR has a three-year-old Renewable Energy Technician program (concentration is wind energy) which Vestas and Ibendrola (sp?) is raiding for employees after they've taken just the introductory courses.

Oregon and WA both have initiative-inspired legislation on the books requiring something like 20% of well-defined renewable-energy-sourced generation by 2020. It is, as we say, 'balls to the wall'.

paul spencer