During May 4-7,
Connector Products Inc. exhibited at the
Windpower Expo 2009, sponsored by
AWEA (American Wind Energy Association). Since Connector Products is new to wind energy, Nick and I arrived in Chicago determined to learn everything we could about the industry itself, and how our Connector Products fits into it.
We wanted an education, and so did almost everybody else that had made the trip. From Texas ranchers and Amish farmers, to experienced European turbine manufacturers and small family businesses, the show attracted more than 20,000 exhibitors and attendees.
From engineers to construction workers, everybody knew something about wind power, and shared it. Some of the most fascinating tidbits of information were general facts about the gargantuan size of each wind turbine: the towers can be 250 feet high, and each blade can be 140 feet long. Even the nacelles weigh about 92 tons.
We spent the week learning from the great people who stopped by our booth to ask about our mechanical wedge connectors and swap stories. We chatted with some maintenance guys who actually assemble the turbines. Most of their job takes place about 250 feet in the air, but they didn't think it was a big deal. We talked to a lot of people from Texas, which AWEA ranked as the state with the most potential for wind and T. Boone Pickens plans to populate with massive wind farms. We also caught up with a couple original wind guys, who said they've been in the industry since the late 1980s, when just a couple hundred people would show up for shows like this. I noticed that there were a lot more young professionals and women involved in this show compared with other industry shows.
We were delighted to meet people who had used CPI's wedge connectors previously, and others who asked out our company founder, Mario Polidori or had worked with our company president, Tom Polidori. Some of our sales reps were there, including George Hovey, President of
Utility Lines, Byron Howells of
Riter Engineering, and Ron Haverstock and Tom Kaercher of
Haverstock Bowers and Associates. We also learned a great deal from Ed Fay, co-owner of Spectrum Power Products. The old friends spent most of their time with us busting each other's chops.
(Photo below from left to right: Tom Kaercher, Ron Haverstock, Nick Polidori, George Hovey, Ed Fay.) 
Of course, Chicago is known as an eating-town, and the topic on everybody's tongue was "Where are you eating tonight?" After two locals recommended the same italian restaurant, the Italian Village, we convinced George and Ed to accompany us for dinner. The oldest italian restaurant in Chicago, Italian Village was designed to look like you were outdoors. A ceiling painted sky blue, twinkling lights, and lovely murals made it really unique. The food was delicious, and we listened to George's stories of hiking the Appalachian trail and his visit to rural China as we feasted on spinach and cheese-filled ravioli and lasagna. George and Ed even convinced Nick to try his first glass of scotch: Glenlivet (Nick must have liked it because he ordered it the next night at dinner too).
On Monday and Thursday our Western Regional Sales Manager and good friend Dave Martin drove down from Wisconsin to help us exhibit. Dave, who had been at a time trial where CPI's connectors were tested against shoot-on connectors, was fired up because our connectors were 42% faster to install than the competition and excited to tell other people about it.
(Click here to read more.) We decided to channel his energy by Dave walking around the show to make sales calls on other exhibitors, and sharing the benefits of our products while looking at all of the neat exhibits at the Windpower show.
(Photo below: Damien Robinson of Megger, Dave Martin, and Nick Polidori). 
We asked a lot of questions, namely "Who is in charge of buying supplies (i.e. connectors) for the wind turbines?" The answer is that it varies from project to project. Each windfarm is built by a team that can be comprised of the following groups: project developer, site owner, construction company, consulting firm, engineering firm, electrical contractor and power purchaser. We weren't surprised by this answer, considering that the green movement which has driven wind energy to the mainstream has been a collaborative effort. (Photo below: a model of wind farm construction.)
We also learned about some of the challenges that the industry is working hard to overcome.
-Logistics is a big one. It can take up to eight tractor trailer trips to haul all of the materials for one wind turbine to its location, which is usually in a hard-to-access area like a desterned plain or high mountain. Still, that's nothing compared to the task of building an entire coal-fired power plant or nuclear power plant.
-Another challenge is how to deliver the electricity from the wind farm to the place it's powering. For example, a wind farm in Utah can supply power to LA, so it must find a place to plug into the grid. There's a strong movement to overhaul the nation's aging transmission system and rebuild it - just as the interstate highway system was created decades ago.
-The "not in my backyard" mentality is still rampant, as well. That's seems to be an obstacle for off shore wind farms, which may have to be installed 35-50 miles from the coast so beachgoers don't see them. This attitude is fizzing out as people realize that the wind farms can be an aesthetic asset to their region. We also heard a lot of people call wind farms "wind parks." I'm not sure where that term originated, but it sounds a little more poetic than wind farm, so maybe it's helping shape public opinion that wind turbines can be as beautiful as gardens or mountains, only a whole lot more powerful.
On the last day of the show, we spent the entire afternoon and evening walking around Chicago, finally visiting all of the landmarks we had seen over the previous days. Nick and his father lived in Chicago for three years in the early 1980's, so he felt a special connection with the city. (Photo below: The Chicago River, across the street from our hotel.)
We walked from the Navy Pier, which featured a ferris wheel and a children's museum (mental note: come back next year with our kids), along Lake Michigan and through Grant Park, the setting of so much recent history - and hope for the future: the city was dotted with flying Olympic banners campaigning to get Chicago chosen as the site of the summer Olympics in 2016. (Photo below: Children's museum and Olympic garden at the Navy Pier.)
The city itself was clean, and with many parks and bike trails, perfect for people who love the outdoors. We walked by the new modern wing of the Art Institute of Chicago, and stopped to admire some outdoor sculptures.
Later a full moon rose, illuminating the city. We were content to be in such an inspiring place, literally and metaphorically. We felt like we were standing on the threshold of new possibilities, for our company, for our country, for renewable energy.
Looking back, the week turned was a series of teaching moments, and by the time our plane landed in Philadelphia we had a more complete picture of the wind industry -and plans to come back to Chicago sometime in the next year for more sight-seeing.
The simulated job was installing a floating dead end then connecting a pole mounted switch to the conductor on either side of the dead end. Three connections were made using the shoot-on style connectors currently used on the utility’s system and three connections were made using CPI mechanical wedge connectors. Four linemen participated in each installation in two or three bucket trucks. 
The traditional shoot-on connectors pictured above took an average of 5 minutes, 31 seconds per installation. 
