Quote:
Originally Posted by Chadillaccc
I wonder, why doesn't Alberta have any turbine and turbine blade manufacturing facilities? Since we have such a large demand and potential for wind power here.
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Lets say you're in the market for a new car. These things have a retail price of 20 grand for something on the cheaper end, so the cost of shipping the thing in from Michigan or Ontario isn't that bad, at least as a fraction of the total cost of the vehicle. That's something you would never do with, say, concrete. Transportation costs would be 90% of the total price. Meanwhile, what would plant duplication cost for a car? A couple billion? Amortize that over every car of that make sold in Alberta, and you once again end up with a venture that makes no sense.
From the perspective of the automaker, the vehicle and its method of assembly are one thing, one singular project. Or you could even go one step further and call the vehicles just an operand, which you can modify to the whims of the market. Your investment into the factories and supply chains are much, much more than what you spend on the actual design of the vehicles themselves. Wind turbines are in a similar class of product. Certainly wages are not cheap in Germany or Denmark, probably similar to those in much of Canada. That's not what is keeping Vestas, Enercon, and Siemens manufacturing in Europe. The reason they're in Europe is because they've always been in Europe, and they can't afford to leave.
Edit: This is true for wind turbine blades, gearboxes, control systems, and specialized generators. Towers are usually locally-sourced, and also much of the transforming equipment.