For those interested in learning a little more about Wind Energy around the world, a nice clean Wiki listing is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power.
There is a lot of information to take in out on the web, and knowing even a little bit of it can help further the cause of big wind. Wind Energy provides a form of electricity that is close to the most efficient and inexpensive forms of power. Even more importantly, as we head into more and more complicatedpolitics and ecological issues around energy, Wind is ever more the premier choice for satisfying our hunger for juice.

Wind energy produces no carbon emissions. When operating, a wind turbine consumes no water, no fuel, and no air. Nothing is burnt or consumed in the making of wind energy.
There are no measurable levels of polutants emitted by wind turbines during operation, and most maintain an uptime of 95-98%. This means that even considering maintainance, almost every turbine installed is ready to make power at all times.

1-2 year studies are conducted on future wind park sites using MET towers (meterological equipment) to determine the usefulness of a site for wind energy. To me this means simply that turbines are almost all always on and generating. As technology comes along with improvements, and more service technicians are available and competently trained, turbine efficience will improve, and service life will be lengthened.

Fascinating new designs could revolutionize our landscape.

The answer is blowing in the wind.

LIDAR

LIDAR http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LIDAR
is a new technology that, when used in wind turbines allows the rotating ability of an upwind turbine (for keeping it pointed into the wind) can sense not only where the wind has been via a wind vein, but can also sense where the wind will be. This new advancement will bring longevity and efficiency to wind production. It will reduce wear on internal components and rotors by maintaining optimal yaw (rotation) as well as optimized yaw angle.

This is a nice simplified drawing of a Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine that is using upwind construction. The rotor assembly is ahead of the turbine in the wind stream. One complication of this design, is that a yaw drive, or tail is required to keep these unstable designs pointed into the wind. This unit has a yaw drive (numbers 13/14) they take info from the wind vein which turns motors and actuators. The large gear is affixed to the tower, and the smaller gears are firmly mounted on the nacelle. Many of the most commonly installed units today are upwind, steel tube constructed.

My journey starts here:

I am from Olympia, WA. I found nw-rei on the internet after being tipped off about the wind industry. I just started to google around. The biggest reason I initially checked into it is its proximity to my home. When I requested more info from the school on their automatic contact email, Julie Reppen called me the very next day on my cel, and was a very proactive recruiter.

From that day, I think it was no more than 2 weeks that I was accepted into the program. My life has been a whirlwind ever since.

I started my first week at NW-REI March 8th. There is not much to tell about the first week... orientation, student handbook, Math placement test, Physical test.

This week starting March 15th has had a lot more substance. We started the "Intro to Wind Tech" portion of the month. There have been several hours of fascinating slides and periods of class discussion. We had a visit yesterday from Mike Merrick. He has many years of dedicated work in the wind industry. His classroom discussion in lively, dynamic, pointed, and informative. Nothing compares to a teaching style developed from raw experience.

Today my class has a quiz on the last two days of information. We will get more information tonight and tomorrow, and quiz again on Friday.
I'll try to post the two internet labs my group put together. The photos are probably copyrighted, and I apologize for snipping them for this purpose.