VMI To Host Booth at RENEW 09 Conference

June 23 – 24 VMI will host a booth at RENEW 09 in Tucumcari, New Mexico. RENEW 09: Empowering the Land is the only conference of its kind in the nation specifically designed to match landowners, ranchers, and developers with industry leaders in the rapidly emerging, renewable energy sector. RENEW 09 is designed to be a “nuts & bolts” conference that is packed with “actionable” information on how you can best capture wind, sun and other alternative energy sources to reap an economic return.

For more information about the conference go to www.empoweringtheland.com

Sandia National Lab Testing

Sandia National Lab scientist, Todd Griffith, strikes the turbine tower with an instrumented sledgehammer to excite structural vibrations for analysis.

Sandia National Lab Tests Turbine

Sandia National Laboratories Analytical Structural Dynamics Department has completed two days of on-site testing and data gathering at the Clines Corners turbine site. The tests looked at the vibration characteristics of the turbine and how they compare with those predicted by their computer modeling. The accuracy of the computer modeling is critical to the design of the next generation beta VP100.

Lab personal attached accelerometers and strain gauges with glue and magnets to the turbine. Striking, pulling or rotating then vibrated the turbine structure. The resulting vibrations were recorded by the Lab’s portable data acquisition system for analysis.

Preliminary results of this week's testing confirm the accuracy of new turbine design modeling. Design of the beta turbine is largely complete.