A scientist in California says we’ll soon have more luck at trying to catch the wind. Tom Ashwill with Scandia Labs has been working to perfect the design of wind turbine blades, and says while Iowa’s a leader in using the technology, we’re a low-wind zone as far as engineers rank them.
LWST, Low Windspeed Technology, is the name for the research being done on how they can make wind-power at sites that weren’t the first choice. While it blows harder in North Dakota, and the mountain passes of California, Ashwill says there are lots of utility customers relatively close to the windfarms of Iowa, and rather than send the power down a thousand miles of wire, they’re re-designing windmills to work efficiently at lower speeds, harvesting the energy from the breeze as well as higher winds.