| When you appear on "Jeopardy," and the little blue | | | | if they seem unreasonable. As you select yours, |
| screen lights up with "two basic wind turbine tower | | | | keep the basics firmly in mind: You want yours to |
| design requirements," you either answer, "What are | | | | spread as fat as possible and stretch as tall as |
| size and elegance?" or Alex gives you that | | | | possible with just enough of just the right stuff. |
| condescending look, patronizing you with his patented | | | | Guyed wires, for example, do not meet the test of |
| "I'm sorry." | | | | elegance if in a high visibility area though they are a |
| Size and elegance determine the quality of your wind | | | | great choice for many. |
| turbine tower's design. High-quality materials help, but | | | | You do not need an advanced degree in civil |
| even allegedly "unbreakable" materials will fail if the | | | | engineering to select the right tower for your location |
| design does not honor the basic principles. | | | | and machine. You do, however, need unwavering |
| Questionable designs for wind turbine towers... | | | | common sense. Among big wind turbine towers, the |
| Towers come in as many shapes and sizes as Dunkin' | | | | principle of "big and elegant" always applies, and |
| Doughnuts has sweet treats, and the engineer or | | | | common sense prevails. It may not be as important |
| factory representative behind each "new and | | | | for smaller towers. |
| improved" design swears his will max-out power while | | | | Well-designed wind turbine towers... |
| minimizing cost. The slickest sales guys will show | | | | Civil engineers no less than fashion designers ought |
| multi-color charts and graphs, dramatically proving | | | | strictly to follow the fundamental "principle of |
| how their towers beat the competition by every | | | | elegance," insisting on simplicity. Conceiving it a little |
| measure-except you never have heard of the | | | | more practically, civil engineers ought to insist on "just |
| strange measures and bizarre calculus these guys | | | | enough of just the right stuff." When a design has |
| have applied to make their graphs bubble-up in just | | | | more fluff and frou-frou than rigidity and stress |
| the right places. The more you study, the more | | | | tolerance, we ought not walk it down the runway or |
| perplexed you become. Meanwhile, you really would | | | | erect it in our backyards. Too many moving parts |
| like to get yours and running before fossil fuels | | | | make wind generator towers vulnerable. Lattice |
| run-out and something vaguely apocalyptic befalls. | | | | towers and welded steel posts with guyed wires will |
| The slicker the sales pitch, the greater the hyperbole, | | | | perform well in small earthquakes and high winds, but |
| the more enthusiasm in the sales guy's voice, the | | | | please beware because Mother Nature's gyrations |
| more you absolutely must not trust the guy's claims | | | | can tear out your anchors if not installed properly. |