Aruba’s first commercial wind turbine site is on its way to completion. Here at The Bent Page we updated over the summer on the construction phase. Now the Vestas turbines are spinning in the wind. Still some work to be done, but this is a beautiful sight:
Tour buses now take visitors past this area, as do the private guides. It’s worth a look. These units hardly make a sound and yet they produce a handsome amount of electricity.
Bon dia.
The wind turbine project continues here in Aruba. All the foundations have been built and now the towers, generating units, and blades have arrived. A team assembles them even as this post goes up. The first photo shows the truck that delivers the generating units arriving on site and being unloaded.
To grasp the scale of these units, consider them beside that Toyota Yaris parked along side the truck. The next photo shows the base into which fits the tower and the nacelle which houses the generating unit.
Finally, you can now see one wind turbine completely assembled and the next one in progress.
Let’s have one more look at that, shall we?
Reports indicate this facility will be producing energy in January 2010. I hope so. The wind blows strong in Aruba. No reason not to make some electricity. Why not built another ten or twenty or thirty?
Bon dia.
Here in Aruba, windmills will soon be turning. A friend and I headed to the south east side of the island where the foundations are now going in for some very large turbines that will soon capture the energy of the trade winds and turn it into electricity for the island. Here’s a look at how the foundations are built.
First, a site is excavated and a pad of concrete is poured with large rebar to tie it together with the next level of the foundation.
Then a cage of rebar is set up like this:
With the man standing on the left in the photo above, you get a sense of the scale of this structure. Finally, the concrete is poured around the rebar to complete the base, which looks like this:
Soon there will be towers standing atop these bases. Then will come the turbines themselves with their massive blades turning in the wind.
I can’t wait to see this project delivering power to the grid in Aruba. It will be a giant leap forward for the island.
Many homes in Aruba do not have running hot water. Some use small, point of use units to heat water used in the shower. These are typically electrically powered and draw quite a bit of current. However, the other day I spotted this solar hot water unit.
This unit is actually quite sophisticated. It has a flat collector plate that captures the sun’s rays, transferring the heat to water piped through the collector area. Then the hot water is stored in an insulated tank you see at the top left of the unit. This way, even after the sun goes down, you have hot water on demand. Here in Aruba, where the sun is very strong, this unit can deliver enough hot water for a typical family of four. The best part is, after the initial investment of purchasing and installing it, there are no additional costs. This one is mounted at ground level for easy maintenance but they can also be mounted on top of the roof.
If you’re considering a home in Aruba, I strongly suggest a system like the one pictured above. It will save you money in the long run and thereby make your island home that much more affordable.
Bon dia from Aruba.
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