Keeping abreast of the times

Its development offered equality for women to also play sport comfortably and modestly. Later, the bra became a fashion item in its own right, breaking the mould of underwear being worn out of sight.

Brassiere is old French, for protector of arm such as a brace. But bras are not really a modern invention. In 2500BC, Cretan women used to lift their breasts out of their clothing and archaeologists have found cloth used for binding breasts during sport in ancient Greece.

On average, a B cup breast weighs about 150 grams to 200g while a D cup is about three times as heavy. Without a bra, the B cup bosoms can bounce more than 4 centimetres during normal activity. During vigorous exercise, such as running, they can leap 8cm.

More recently, French sports doctor Jean-Denis Rouillon claimed his 16 years of research into bra wearing showed it weakened natural muscles leading to saggy bosoms.

“What rubbish. The breast is made up of mainly tissue and fat, and depends on Coopers ligaments and skin to give it support. Once pulled too far the ligaments are stretched permanently,” she says.

She wonders: Had he not seen women who had spent their life bra-less in parts of Africa and noted the results of gravity on their breasts?

The average cup size in the 1980s was 12B and when Mrs Stevens left in 2011 it was a 14C or 14D. She puts the dramatic increase down to lifestyle changes. The number indicates the size around the back which allows for different body shapes and frames while the letter indicates a larger cup as it progresses further into the alphabet. Thanks to new technology, minimiser bras take an inch off the projection and add to the circumference for bigger bosomed women. “So instead of up and out, they sit in.”

On the other hand, flat-chested women have plenty of bras to choose from which offer the illusion of extra inches.

It was not until the late 1980s that New Zealand trade barriers were removed, opening the flood gates to overseas lines finally offering women more choice but inconsistent sizing. A more relaxed approach was taken by designers such as Australian model Elle Macpherson, who tested every one of her designs personally.

New technology created a moulded structure and modern fabrics were introduced in a variety of colours – beige was left behind. On occasions, women would be fitted for a new bra, wear it and ask the corsetiere to dispose of their old one in the rubbish.

Mrs Stevens says a bra has a manufacturer’s life expectancy of just three to six months before it stretches and needs replacing. It is recommended that women have three bras on rotation, and they be preferably handwashed or placed in the washing machine in a lingerie bag to keep the wires flat.

Her favourite customers were the women who had undergone mastectomies and were feeling really nervous. “They had lost their self worth but it was good to send them away feeling like a new person.”

Bird seed in a bag was used as a prosthetic until silicone was moulded into inserts. The silicone pieces can be slipped into the specially designed flap of a bra to fill it out.

A low-profile company with an amazingly durable history

Typically, other companies use Richlite in their own products, which range from skateboards to guitar fretboards and from cutting boards to exterior walls.

Richlite’s product comprises layers of resin-soaked thick paper that are dried and then compressed under hellish pressure to produce an impermeable slab of material, easy to machine, of whatever specified thickness meets a customer’s needs.

The first needs served the wartime aerospace industry and the company has gone on to enhance its reputation among architects and in the world of skateboards and skateboard parks. That sporting product, Skatelite, is used to manufacture and shape indoor and outdoor skateboard ramps used by amateur and professional skaters and BMX riders.

The News Tribune spoke recently with Atkinson at the Richlite headquarters and manufacturing plant on the Tacoma Tideflats.

Q: What do companies do with your product?

A: Where we partner with other companies they’re turning our material into (products that include) guitars and iPhone cases. Another partner produces longboard skateboards. We’ve seen eyeglass frames, three-ring binders. I’ve seen chopsticks. In automotive, Mercedes has tested for interior use.

Q: So how’s business?

A: It’s going really, really well. Between the beginning of 2009 and the end of 2012, our revenue grew 70 percent. In addition, year-to-date for 2013 we are 25 percent greater than we were at this time last year.

Q: How are you planning to celebrate your anniversary?

A: We’re about two or three weeks away from starting a big campaign for an event we have coming up with our Skatelite division. We’re inviting pro skateboarders and BMX riders to Lopez Island to help dedicate a new skate park. It will be open to the public, free. We’re bringing out all of our distributors, and the pros, about 150 people. We’ve rented 40 homes on the island. It’s going to be a lot of fun.

Q: Where did the company get its start?

A: In aerospace. Before computer-assisted design, Boeing would use it to prototype parts. When the 747 was being built, we used it to build a nose cone for wind tunnel tests.

Q: What’s been the progression from aerospace to other uses?

A: In the ’60s we did get into food service, food preparation, back-of-the-kitchen stuff. I’ve seen it in so many restaurants. Architectural is our largest growth area. We’ve been working with a lot of high-profile companies. I’ve sat down with the Tacoma Art Museum. I’d love to be part of the Haub addition, the exterior surface. We’ve done extensive testing and we’re just getting into the marketing phase. We’ve tested in Duluth, Minn., and gone through bitter cold, and hot summers, commercial and residential.

Q: What kinds of shapes can you produce here?

A: We can do any thickness from one-eighth of an inch to three inches thick. Different (varieties) go under names like Black Diamond, Browns Point, Grays Harbor, Rainier, Adams, Little Tahoma – all local areas. A new product, “Stratum, ” has imbedded bamboo.

Q: What about your R&D?

A: Our biggest goal, one of the reasons we’re successful, is that we really go after areas where we can help solve a problem. With the fretboards, about four years ago one of our reps was working with a small guitar-repair company that does a lot of work with Martin. They put two and two together.

Q: Where are you seeing the greatest growth?

A: Architectural, and a bigger piece as more and more of these other options help us grow, and we’ll expand the Skatelite surface material. We’re looking at sub-flooring for rail cars, and there’s also the bus industry. We’re growing faster in Europe than in the U.S., especially with architectural. We’re starting in Asia.

Q: What about cost? I’m guessing you’re more expensive than plywood.

A: In general, no matter what market we are selling into, our product will end up on the premium end of the spectrum. For countertops, an installed price is equivalent to high-end granite.

That said, the benefits can far outweigh the expense. Our Skatelite product is probably the simplest comparison. Compared to regular plywood that people put on skate ramps, our material is four times the amount. A plywood surface may need to be resurfaced two times per year. There are Skatelite-surfaced ramps out there that have been in operation for 12-plus years.

Scientific Management Techniques

Scientific Management Techniques will be delivering skill assessment machines and assessment protocol training for all sixteen technical colleges in Wisconsin this summer. The equipment and training is partially funded by the U. S. Department of Labor, Employment Training Administration’s Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training Grant program.

These unique programs have a proven history of improving both employment and industrial productivity across a wide variety of manufacturing platforms. The assessment machines are used globally in the hiring process and to identify specific training needs of the industrial workforce. “The assessment machines are powerful productivity tools” states Stephen Berry, President of SMT.

“The program objective is to solve the manufacturing skills shortage. The assessment program has many uses in industry; our manufacturing clients assess candidates to identify and measure the skills of potential employees. Identifying skills prior to hire is the single most effective way to ensure a quality hire and drive performance. Many clients also assess their incumbent workforce and design targeted training based on the assessment data. Delivering training based on the assessment data is exceptionally effective as you take manpower out of production only for the specific identified skills training required. The mechanical skills assessment machine, the Standard Timing Model, also identifies mechanical instinct and aptitude. Our clients use this capability when they staff apprentice programs where candidates have had no manufacturing skills training to date. Each technical college in Wisconsin will have all of these capabilities.”

“Our state’s manufacturers look to the Wisconsin Technical College System to train the highly-skilled, productive workforce that drive our economy,” said Dean Stewart, dean of Northeast Wisconsin Technical College’s Corporate Training and Economic Development. “By using SMT’s hands-on skill assessment machines to focus training on the specific needs of the manufacturing industry and our students, Wisconsin’s technical colleges are continuing efforts to close the state’s workforce skills gap.”

SMT has been delivering manufacturing skill assessments since 1970. Many of the most respected manufacturing organizations in the world use the assessment program to drive profitability by increasing the skill level of their workforce. “Our typical industrial client is a large Fortune 500 type global manufacturer” continues Berry, “When a school deploys the assessment and training program they are delivering the same program for manufacturers of all sizes in each market. We are excited to have the opportunity to work with each technical college in Wisconsin. Collectively, the effect will be to increase the skill level of the industrial workforce statewide.”

The increase in revenue was due to the sale of four 3-D printers and a laser machine, bringing revenue in that segment to $4.2 million in the quarter. There were no sales in the first quarter a year earlier. Printing revenue also was up to $3.7 million from $2.7 million a year ago.

“We continue to be very encouraged with the opportunities that present themselves for our 3-D printing capability. Nonetheless, as a global company we are subject to the vagaries of the economies in which we operate,” S. Kent Rockwell, chairman and CEO, said in a prepared statement. “The weakness in Europe has slowed the purchase decisions of our customers in that region while customer demand in Japan is clearly strengthening with the economy. And in North America, we also received our first order for an M-Flex machine in the quarter.”

It’s time to diversify Connecticut’s gaming industry

Connecticut is at a dangerous crossroads. We can choose to do nothing and lose hundreds of millions of dollars in projected revenue for the state from our two casinos, or we can go on the offensive, diversify the industry and get back in the game. Connecticut can easily strengthen its existing gaming industry by allowing the addition of 10,000 slot machines at the three pari-mutuel gaming facilities in Connecticut, where enthusiasts already make wagers on horse and dog races, and by adding additional machines to the Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods casinos. This will bring thousands of dollars of gaming revenue into the state, and create new, full-time jobs for Connecticut residents.

In the early 1990s, Connecticut and its taxpayers struck gold when an agreement was reached to allow the Mashantucket Pequot and the Mohegan tribal nations to build two state-of-the-art casinos in our state. Under this arrangement, 25 percent of slot-machine revenue goes directly into the state budget to help pay for things like education, transportation and financial aid to our towns and cities.

Unfortunately, the days of being the only game in town are nearing an end and if we are not careful, our state could lose its edge. Attendance at Connecticut’s two casinos is down and it’s only going to get worse now that neighboring states are expanding into the gaming business.

New York already allows video lottery terminals, a device similar to slot machines, at the Yonkers and Aqueduct racetracks. There are approximately 5,500 video lottery terminals at each facility, generating substantial revenue. Andrew Cuomo has authorized three additional full-sized casinos to be developed in New York. Massachusetts is also considering building three major casinos. This week, the mayor of Springfield awarded the city’s gaming rights to MGM Resorts International. Other proposed sites for resort casinos include the town of Palmer, the greater Boston area, and a site to be determined in the southeast portion of the state. Rhode Island already has slot facilities in Newport and Twin Rivers.

Increased gaming in New York and Massachusetts will be devastating to Connecticut’s casino industry and to the state’s bottom line. We can stop our financial bleeding by giving Connecticut residents more reasons to stay closer to home with greater accessibility to similar-type venues.

This is why it is critical to act now and add 10,000 slot machines at Connecticut’s three pari-mutuel gaming locations. Shoreline Star at Bridgeport, Sports Haven in New Haven and Bradley Teletheater in Windsor Locks are operated by Sportech and along with Foxwoods and Mohegan could easily be outfitted with slot machines at very little expense. Demographic studies done by the Cummings Report have shown that this type of wagering is conducive to attracting “day trip” gaming enthusiasts by providing locations within a short driving distance of their homes.

Connecticut has a strong potential for day-trip gaming, which has not yet been capitalized on. By introducing these new slot machines, Connecticut will retain its place in gaming with a projected excess of $200 million a year in new revenue. As many as 3,000 new full-time jobs, employing Connecticut workers, would be directly created by these facilities, in addition to the economic growth the expanded gaming will bring to surrounding regions.

Debate rages over wind farm plans

As negotiations that would help bring in the new nuclear era drag on, wind farm developers say their schemes are vital to “keep the lights on”.

The argument could have a major impact on Somerset.

In the flat lands along the M5 corridor, farming and tourism are major industries, but the landscape that attracts thousands of visitors has also attracted the eye of green energy companies. Two companies, whose proposals for four-turbine farms were rejected by local councillors are each appealing the decisions. A planning enquiry into Ecotricity’s proposal at Black Ditch, West Huntspill, resumes in Burnham-on-Sea tomorrow. Last week, Broadview Energy announced that it is appealing the decision to reject its scheme at Pilrow between Mark and Rooksbridge.

Both schemes, and a third by EDF Energy, aroused fierce local opposition, with objectors claiming the turbines would ruin views and blight tourism as well as harm the bird population using internationally-designated wildlife sites on the Levels and in the Severn Estuary.

Announcing its decision to appeal last week, Broadview Energy said due weight must be given to the need to “keep the lights on”, and wind farms can do it while reducing carbon emissions.

Just a few miles away on the West Somerset coast, the site that may one day be Hinkley C nuclear power station gives silent testimony to the need for new energy. A Government decision for the price to be paid for the electricity generated is needed urgently. Until it is decided, Frenchbased developer EDF Energy cannot decide whether it will go ahead.

The NoPilrow action committee say wind farms’ efficiency has been exaggerated. Committee member David Maund said: “We are buying from the French nuclear industry twice as much as that supplied by wind turbines at inflated prices.”

The Huntspill Wind Farm Action Group is calling on all who feel strongly about “industrial-scale” wind farms to attend the planning enquiry at the Princess Hall tomorrow.

Meanwhile, it has been revealed that a total of 1,146,614 has been handed out to the operators of 13 Scottish wind farms to compensate them for not producing power during periods of high generation and low demand, so as not to overload the National Grid.

One of the largest beneficiaries was the Fallago Rig Wind Farm run by EDF. A company spokesman said: “All generators are required to have commercial agreements in place with the National Grid. These cover periods when the Grid instructs generators to decrease the power they generate.”

The contract, said to be worth R$1.8bn, involves installation of 207 units of the US manufacturer’s 1.7MW model across 13 wind farms near the town of Paulino Neves. The deal also includes a pre-agreement for a further 170 turbines to be deployed later at projects yet to secure a power purchase agreement.

The transaction will ensure GE is compliant with Finame, a new set of wind turbine local content rules being implemented in Brazil, according to a press release from Bioenergy.

Bioenergy president Sergio Marques said: “We gave priority to GE because we already operate 18 of their turbines in our wind farms in Rio Grande do Norte and the results have been very positive.”

Enniskillen Township citizens’ group spreading its message

Chad Burke says he believes it’s possible to keep wind farms out of Enniskillen Township.

Burke chairs the citizens’ group Conservation of Rural Enniskillen (CORE) that formed earlier this year after several wind companies became active seeking land to lease for turbine sites in the township.

Some residents of other communities where turbines have already been built have said “they wish they would have gotten a head start, like we have,” Burke said.“We’re feeling pretty good there’s a chance industrial wind turbines will not be in Enniskillen.”

Core members will be handing out pamphlets and information at Saturday’s town-wide yard sale in Petrolia, and will have an information table May 1 at the Heidi’s Independent grocery store there.

That will be followed by a community awareness meeting CORE has organized for May 2, 7 p.m., at Lambton Centennial School.

Lawyer Wallace Lang is scheduled to speak that evening about land leases and Greg Cameron will speak about insurance issues. Tammy Van Troost, president of the Lambton local of the National Farmers Union, is also expected to speak.

“What we’re hoping to do is make sure that before anyone signs a lease, they understand what they’re getting into and what they’re signing,” Burke said.

“Once you sign, it’s kind of hard to get back out.” CORE members have also been hand-delivering 1,000 information flyers around the township.

Burke said they’ve been hearing back that many local farmers still aren’t aware of the concerns about wind turbines.“We just want to keep getting the word out.”

CORE also has a community awareness meeting set for June 22, 3 p.m., that will feature Eric Gillespie, an environmental lawyer helping defend neighbouring Plympton-Wyoming from Suncor’s court challenge of that municipality’s wind turbine bylaws.

Burke said members of CORE were at the legislature in Toronto recently when Liberal and NDP MPPs voted to block a Tory bill that would have, among other things, returned some local municipal control to approvals for wind farms.

Burke said he was disappointed in the vote.“We were hoping maybe some NDP members would get involved and put the bill through.”

Enniskillen Township council recently passed a motion declaring itself an unwilling host for wind farms, and Mayor Kevin Marriott has been speaking out against Ontario’s Green Energy Act and its impact on rural communities.

Wind development isn’t something municipalities should fear, according to Brandy Giannetta, Ontario regional director with the Canadian Wind Energy Association.

“If anything,” she said, “they should consider the significant economic benefits they can incur from engaging with wind developers.”

Many municipalities are doing that and “working to ensure that wind developments that come into their communities provide local benefits,” Giannetta said.

“We’re talking millions of dollars here, that are being distributed among communities in southwestern Ontario.”

Online Gaming

When the Dreamcast appeared back in 1999, the idea of a console with internet running into the back of it was an exciting concept for both gamers and developers. However, the Dreamcast, while it made use of being an online-enabled console, was limited by the speed of the average internet connection in the era it was introduced. This, as we can all recall, was painfully slow.

However, in 2013, when fiberoptic broadband is becoming increasingly common in homes, and games consoles come with online capability as standard, the type of games we play have adapted to this new range of abilities and features. Online multiplayer, community, downloadable content, digital downloads – gaming has changed, but has it changed for the better?

Let’s construct a typical example of gaming in 2013. You buy a new console, which comes with internet capability, and take it home. It connects wirelessly, you look up any information relevant to your online gaming experience at O2 and the other sites you’ll rely on for fine-tuning how the console interfaces with the internet. You’ll then get down to gaming, and oh, what a different world of gaming it is.

Shooters are no longer something you’re restricted to playing with a bunch of friends sitting on your couch together. You could of course still do this, but you can also play Halo against someone in Japan with a minimum of latency. You can also download new content to expand the gaming experience you’ve already had.

While there are advantages to the former, the second is concerning. Knowing that they can add new content (and charge for said new content) means that publishers and developers may include cliff-hangers and other tie-ins to future purchases within existing games. In an era where consoles were not online machines, developers had to finish games and ensure they were bug free because issuing patches was impossible. Now this isn’t an issue (despite the considerable expense, at least on the Xbox 360 platform), games are more buggy, tied to future purchases and never quite feel complete.

This isn’t a good sign, but there are developers who are demonstrating why we love online gaming. 343 Industries has taken the Halo reins and provided an endless stream of updates and map packs that feel reasonably priced, with no one ever prevented from playing the base maps and games as any content required to do so is free.

In the field of MMOs, World of Warcraft is updated with an expansion every so often, but save that and a subscription fee, the game is constantly added to. While this is a more constant expense than Halo’s map packs, it’s also a commitment from developer Blizzard to keep gamers entertained in a way that could only be compared to mailing out an endless amount of discs to update an offline game – a ridiculous proposition, at best.

However, low-priced game downloads are doing well and if it’s possible for the low-priced gaming craze on iOS and Android to avoid crashing into the console market and causing devaluation problems for developers, gamers are going to see a lot of reasonably-priced good times as indies who aren’t charging the earth start appearing more and more on XBLA and PSN, offering everything from Battleblock Theater to Minecraft.

Online is a new frontier, and every gamer and developer deals with it differently. But while there are some pricing issues, some developers less scrupulous when it comes to dragging out people’s commitment to a single game, there are also countless benefits that are easy to forget, even when you do find yourself talking Might and Magic tactics with someone who lives thousands of miles away with astonishing convenience.

Optimism, uncertainty

Naval Station Everett, under Coury’s command since 2010, should be well positioned for the future as the Navy moves 60 percent of its ships to the Asia-Pacific region by 2020. The question is how new federal budget constraints under sequestration will affect those plans and the Navy’s desire to increase its ship count from 286 to 295 by then, Coury said.

Sequestration has meant lots of belt tightening as the Navy focuses on “mission-critical” items, he said. That means no more overtime pay and reductions in groundskeeping, utilities and morale, welfare and recreation services for sailors.

The budget turmoil also forced Coury to eliminate community outreach efforts this year, so the base won’t have its annual open house and ship tours in July.

“We are adapting and we will succeed,” Coury said.

But for the Navy’s 200,000 civilian employees, 14 upcoming furlough days will equal a 20 percent discretionary pay cut, he said. The Navy recognizes that hardship and is working to minimize it.

Naval Station Everett’s three frigates, USS Ford, USS Rodney M. Davis and USS Ingraham, will be decommissioned in coming years and will be replaced by three destroyers, Coury said. The plan was announced last year, but the Navy hasn’t finalized the moves while sequestration forces it to juggle dollars.

Another wild card: The Base Closure and Realignment Commission will meet in 2015 and 2017 to consider which military bases to keep and which to recommend for closure.

Regardless, “Naval Station Everett stands fully quipped to meet that transition,” Coury said.

Despite the new budget reality, Coury said Naval Station Everett and its ships are moving ahead with intensive energy conservation efforts as part of the Navy’s Great Green Fleet. The USS Nimitz demonstrated the use of 100 percent biofuel for its jet wing during recent RIMPAC exercises in Hawaii, he said. Last year, the USS Ford became the first Navy ship to sail on a biofuel blend.

Shoreside, Coury has been leading environmental stewardship efforts. The base has plans to install a wind turbine and electric-vehicle charging stations. Its diesel-powered vehicles run a B20 biofuel blend and its gasoline-powered vehicles run on E85 ethanol. Energy consumption around the base has been reduced by 28 percent to 90 percent and its buildings rate among the top 25 percent most efficient in the world.

“We’re doing our part to conserve,” Coury said.

After Coury finished his speech, Port of Everett executive director John Mohr asked how Everett could “BRAC-proof” Naval Station Everett from possible closure.

Coury couldn’t make specific suggestions, but he said the community’s support of Snohomish County’s second-largest employer, which pumps about $318 million into the local economy, is critical to keeping Naval Station Everett open and the county’s support of the base and its sailors is “tremendous.”

“But again, I must remain apolitical on the issue,” he said. Everett Mayor Ray Stephanson expressed an optimistic tone.

“This is the base that most bases try to become,” he said. To call Naval Station Everett “‘the sailors’ choice’ isn’t just a mantra. This is the No. 1 base for where all sailors want to be assigned.”

Interior chief sees many wind farms in US future

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar voiced optimism Friday that the nation’s first offshore wind farm will soon break ground after more than a decade of delays and be followed by more off the Atlantic coast.

“I think there’s a good chance it will happen before the end of the year,” Salazar said of the Cape Wind project. Speaking in an AP interview a few weeks before he leaves office, he also claimed gains as secretary in tightening oversight of offshore drilling after the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. “I think the coziness with industry that was there when I came into the department is gone,” he said.

A former U.S. senator from Colorado, the 58-year-old Salazar ran the Interior Department throughout President Barack Obama’s first term.

Along with changes at the offshore drilling agency, Salazar pushed for renewable energy such as solar and wind power and helped to settle a longstanding dispute with American Indians.

The Interior Department manages more than 500 million acres in national parks and other public lands, as well as more than 1 billion acres offshore. The department oversees energy, mining operations and recreation and provides services to 566 federally recognized Indian tribes.

Under Salazar’s watch, Interior authorized more than 40 solar, wind and geothermal energy projects on public lands that officials say will provide enough electricity to power more than 4 million homes.

Salazar called his four-year tenure a “joyful journey” that took him from the Everglades to the Arctic. Still, he said he was eager to return to his family and his Colorado ranch.

He spoke of progress in the long-delayed Cape Wind project off the Massachusetts coast because developers have agreements with utilities to purchase about 75 percent of the power the project is expected to generate and are working to get more. The $2.6 billion project off Cape Cod was the first offshore project to win a federal lease when Salazar gave his approval in 2010.

But the project has stalled because of lawsuits and difficulties obtaining financing. Developers plan to build 130 turbines in Nantucket Sound, but they’ve faced bitter opposition since they first proposed the project in 2001.

Opponents have filed several pending lawsuits and argue the project will ruin the pristine sound and endanger marine traffic and animal life. They also say the project’s electricity is significantly overpriced and a terrible deal for ratepayers.

Cape Wind says the cost is worth the project’s benefits, including jobs, decreased pollution and the creation of a reliable power source near a busy coastline.

Salazar said the delays and lawsuits that have plagued Cape Wind illustrate the difficulty of developing new energy sources. Regulatory improvements made in recent years should help other offshore projects follow more quickly, he said.

“Nobody had really focused on offshore wind energy until President Obama came into office,” he said. “Cape Wind wasn’t even processed under the authority of this department. They ended up in this morass where it took them 10 years to work through that process.”

Now, with so-called wind energy zones designated in the Atlantic Ocean, a host of wind farms should crop up from Maine to Virginia, Salazar said. “We’re very, very excited by the progress that has been made and we look forward to a robust offshore wind industry in the Atlantic.”

On offshore drilling, Salazar defended the unprecedented shutdown of offshore drilling after the BP spill. In office, he also renamed and revamped the agency that oversees offshore drilling after the April 2010 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig, which killed 11 workers and led to the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

Business groups and Gulf Coast political leaders said the six-month shutdown crippled the oil and gas industry and cost thousands of jobs. Salazar said the moratorium was the right decision.

Now, regulators “are being a lot smarter about what we lease” on the Outer Continental Shelf, he said. “We are making sure that people are kept accountable and that problems are detected and fixed as rapidly as possible.”

Change is in the Air at NREL’s Wind Center

The National Wind Technology Center (NWTC) is at the nexus of a changing landscape, where the mountains meet the plains. It’s also where changes in the wind industry are being previewed. And, a visitor or passerby will notice significant yet subtle changes taking place on site, including a new turbine installation and new blades on another of the site’s giant turbines.

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), along with their industry partners, are advancing a more sustainable energy future at the NWTC by leading the way in testing the most advanced wind turbine technologies and preparing them for future deployment.

“The addition of modern megawatt-scale wind turbines has been critical in the development of our center,” NWTC Director Fort Felker said. “It has changed the way the wind industry thinks about NREL in the sense that the work we are doing is relevant, impactful, and immediately beneficial to them. The continued partnership efforts on these turbines demonstrate how our industry partners value the contribution we provide and the important role we can play in testing new technologies.”

The next step in that partnership took place recently when the turbine was updated to test a new, state-of-the-art blade design. The change converted the ECO 100 turbine into an ECO 110 turbine with a behemoth 110-meter rotor diameter, making it the largest and most powerful wind turbine currently on the NWTC site.

“This is the largest machine we’ve ever had our hands on,” NREL Test Engineer and Project Manager Jeroen van Dam said. “It’s always an exciting opportunity to get to apply our testing methods to a larger or newer concept and continue to validate those methods.”

The unique rotor design of the Alstom turbine required that the blades be switched out, one at a time, in the air. The logistics of such an operation were tricky and required two very large cranes with skilled operators and teams of staff on the ground and inside the turbine. The installation also required calm weather – hardly a given at the notoriously windy NWTC site.

The Alstom ECO 110 turbine with the larger blade configuration is specifically designed to operate efficiently at lower wind speeds. Longer blades mean more wind is captured, allowing greater power generation at lower speeds. The downside of this longer blade configuration is a greater risk of damaging structural loads on the turbine at higher wind speeds. The testing at NREL will focus on power performance and mechanical loads to validate computer modeling that predicts the design loads. This is part of the certification efforts for this turbine blade design before it can enter the U.S. market.

“There is great potential for developing medium wind speed resources throughout the United States and Canada,” said Albert Fisas, director of innovation for Alstom’s North American Wind business. “With this upgrade complete, Alstom and NREL will launch a commissioning and testing program to certify the performance of the new rotor configuration for use in North America and worldwide.”

It might appear odd that these two projects — one wind turbine being refitted to accommodate lower wind speeds while another is updated to handle higher wind speeds — are happening simultaneously and at the same location. However, the NWTC site is uniquely positioned to meet the demands of both.

“Our site regularly gets Class II and Class III wind speeds, with Class I extremes,” van Dam said. “The variety of wind we get at this location allows for us to do a wide variety of testing effectively. And the fact that we often get very high winds here makes it a great location to test structural loads on all types of turbine designs, regardless of their intended wind speed for deployed use.”

“We have unique capabilities to support the type of testing that they want to do,” van Dam said. “Also, with the site and infrastructure we have here, and the benefit of being pre-permitted on public land, the deployment of prototype technologies can be expedited. This helps get newer designs certified and to market quicker.”