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This was originally posted at ZDNet’s Between the Lines.

Google on Tuesday announced a dashboard to detail system status for the Google App Engine.

The move is the latest by a cloud provider to improve transparency in the event of an outage.

On the Google App Engine blog, the company said that it has launched the App Engine system status site and a quota dashboard to detail items like bandwidth usage and CPU. Google said it also plans a billing dashboard to preview what happens if you go beyond those quotas.

Here’s a look at the dashboard:

(Credit:
Google)

The software is meant to solve the problem of sharing information in a wide range of formats between servers at high speed. It’s also designed to let companies like Google upgrade software on a network of connected servers without causing hiccups.

Like a lot of what Google’s engineering team does, this seems to make sense. XML has long been criticized as being too slow, which has led to controversial efforts to standardize XML compression.

Protocol Buffers is an alternative way of describing the format of data that is being sent over the network or stored to a hard drive. Unlike XML, it’s a compact format and is designed to be simple to use, according to Kenton Varda of Google’s Software Engineering Team.

Varda wrote in the company’s open-source blog:

But given the huge investment in XML, it doesn’t look like Protocol Buffers will replace it. Instead, it will be used–certainly by Google and likely others–for Web applications that need a very efficient way to move around data in multiple formats.

Google thought of using XML as a lingua franca to send messages between its different servers. But XML can be complicated to work with and, more significantly, creates large files that can slow application performance.

Matt Cutts, a software engineer who heads Google’s Webspam team, said in a blog late Monday that Protocol Buffers automatically generates Java, Python, or C++ code:

Protocol Buffers allow you to define simple data structures in a special definition language, then compile them to produce classes to represent those structures in the language of your choice. These classes come complete with heavily-optimized code to parse and serialize your message in an extremely compact format. Best of all, the classes are easy to use: each field has simple “get” and “set” methods, and once you’re ready, serializing the whole thing to–or parsing it from–a byte array or an I/O stream just takes a single method call.

The software is available the Apache Software License 2.0.

XML, it seems, has run out of steam for Google.

Google said Monday that it has created an open-source project for a data interchange format called Protocol Buffers.

Think of Protocol Buffers as a very compact way of encoding data in a binary format. A programmer can write a simple description of a protocol or structured data and Google’s code will autogenerate a class in C++, Java, or Python to read, write, and parse the protocol. Given a protocol buffer, you can write it to disk, send it over the network wire, and do any number of interesting tricks. Any medium-sized company (and quite a few startups!) should find Protocol Buffers very handy.

“The decision means absolutely nothing as it relates to other (BitTorrent cases),” Rothken said. “It issue was not decided on the merits. It’s obvious we are going to appeal.”

According to Rothken, TorrentSpy filed bankruptcy in England last week and is without the ability to pay even a fraction of the $100 million, rendering the judgment’s dollar amount meaningless.

TorrentSpy intends to appeal a court decision that requires the now-defunct search engine to pay $111 million in damages to the six largest film studios, according to the company’s attorney.

In December, TorrentSpy got into trouble with U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper, who presided over the case, when she determined that TorrentSpy operators intentionally destroyed evidence, making it impossible for the MPAA to get a fair trial. TorrentSpy had earlier been fined $30,000 for violations of discovery orders.

The MPAA disagreed, claiming that unlike Google, TorrentSpy existed primarily to help people rip off Hollywood.

Ira Rothken has defended TorrentSpy since 2006, when it was accused in a lawsuit filed by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) of encouraging copyright infringement. In an interview with CNET News.com on Wednesday night, Rothken said the judge’s decision was an “abuse of discretion” and suggested that the large dollar amount was an attempt to draw attention to the case.

TorrentSpy attorney Ira Rothken

“What is really going on here is a Hollywood public-relations stunt,” Rothken said. “The reason for the size of the judgment was so a bunch of news organizations would write that ‘a $100 million judgment was issued against a bunch of pirates’ when, in fact, it was declared against a company with no appreciable assets that has already declared bankruptcy.”

Cooper took the unusual step of terminating the case, which meant that she had found in the MPAA’s favor and simply had to determine the damage amount.

In March, when TorrentSpy executives shut down the site, they noted that the cost of defending the case was hundreds of thousands of dollars.

An MPAA representative could not be reached for comment.

TorrentSpy helps users locate BitTorrent files, and since BiTorrent is a technology favored by those sharing digital files illegally, the site was known as an important tool for pirates. But the company argued that it never hosted any unauthorized content and shouldn’t be held responsible for the actions of its users–just as Google isn’t held accountable when people use its service to find pirated content.

But Rothken said the case has no precedent-setting value because TorrentSpy never got its day in court. This may come as good news to IsoHunt, one of TorrentSpy’s former competitors, which has also been sued by the MPAA for allegedly violating copyright.

Meanwhile, analysts Clay and Fred Moran of the Stanford Group note in a research report Wednesday that breaking Yahoo’s business is unlikely to “drive value” for Yahoo shareholders.

Some of the people familiar with these talks say they are preliminary and unlikely to result in a deal with Yahoo.

Should such a breakup occur, Stanford Group’s “sum-of-the-parts” assessment would give Yahoo a value of $20 to $24 a share.

According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, Microsoft has been sidling up to other companies about teaming up to make a bid for Yahoo, a move that would result in a breakup of the Internet search pioneer, with Microsoft retaining the search portion of Yahoo’s business.

Investors may want to keep in mind this one sentence in the Wall Street Journal report:

Yahoo shares shot up 6 percent in morning trading Wednesday, on word that Microsoft may seek partners to make another bid for the company’s search business.

A potential break up of Yahoo’s business would likely result in Microsoft acquiring Yahoo’s search engine, while a large media company could merge its Internet properties with Yahoo, the report states. Yahoo’s Asia assets and investments, meanwhile, could be spun off or sold.

Microsoft reportedly is talking to Time Warner and News Corp. about this arrangement, giving investors a sense of deja vu. Time Warner and News Corp. were among the white knights Yahoo had reportedly sought out after Microsoft announced its unsolicited bid.

Update at 10:40 a.m. PDT, with analyst report on potential break-up of Yahoo and updated stock performance

The stock price jumped 6.3 percent to $21.48 a share early Wednesday, just a day after Yahoo’s shares fell below $20 to come very near the level where they were trading prior to the start of Microsoft’s buyout bid in February.

“We find a breakup would not yield compelling upside from the current stock price,” the research report states.

Icahn is backing a change of management in part because he does not think Microsoft can negotiate with the current board. But Legg Mason said that is an unacceptable reason to change management.

Investor Carl Icahn has proposed an alternative slate of board members, as part of a bid to get Yahoo to agree to some sort of takeover or deal with Microsoft.

“We believe the current Board acted with care and diligence when evaluating Microsoft’s offers. We believe the Board is independent and focused on value creation for long-term shareholders,” Bill Miller, chairman and chief investment officer of Legg Mason said in a release. But the investment house did say that it supports continuing efforts to negotiate.

The investment firm controls about 60.7 million shares of Yahoo, which represents about 4.4 percent of outstanding Yahoo stock.

“While boards are there to protect shareholder interests, shareholders own the company. If Microsoft wants to acquire Yahoo, it can make the terms and conditions of its offer public. If Yahoo shareholders support it, I am confident the Board of Yahoo will accept it,” Miller said in the statement.

“We would prefer that the company and Mr. Icahn reach a mutual agreement on the composition of the Board and end this disruptive proxy contest,” the statement says.

Legg Mason Capital Management said Friday it will back Yahoo’s existing management at the company’s shareholder’s meeting next month.

Carrier: Verizon Wireless

Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 CNET Review

LG Vu CNET Review

LG Dare - $250

Carrier: Verizon Wireless

But before I dive deeply into these iPhone alternatives, let’s take a look at what the new iPhone 3G offers and what it’s still missing.

It won’t be available until mid-September and even then it could take a while before any U.S. operators pick it up.

What are its shortcomings?

Carrier service plan pricing: Not available.

What are its shortcomings? The device lacks GPS and doesn’t support Wi-Fi. The MediaFlo TV service isn’t available everywhere yet. And the monthly charge for the live TV service along with the data and messaging service charges, makes this an expensive phone to own.

Samsung Instinct

Samsung Instinct - $129.00

LG Voyager

But there are also plenty of features that Apple left out of the iPhone 3G, including support for multimedia messaging or MMS. This means users can’t send or receive pictures taken on cell phones via the MMS messaging platform. The device also lacks video recording and voice command. And it only supports Bluetooth for headset voice calls, which means it won’t allow Bluetooth file transfers to and from the iPhone.

Carrier plan pricing: This phone hasn’t officially launched on AT&T’s network. But judging from AT&T’s current BlackBerry service plans, subscribers can expect to pay $90 a month for 450 minutes of talk time, unlimited data and unlimited texting. With unlimited voice, that price jumps to $150 a month.

What makes it cool?
This device doesn’t have a touch screen. Instead, it sports a full QWERTY keypad. But it does have Wi-Fi, and it features an improved Web browser that allows the option of viewing pages in a full desktop HTML style or a mobile version. The phone also comes with an embedded camcorder and GPS for location-based services. Research in Motion is also working on something called the Blackberry Media Sync, which will allow BlackBerry devices to sync with Apple iTunes, so that BlackBerry users can listen to music from their iTunes library.

LG Vu

What makes it cool?
The HTC Touch Diamond has a cool 3D interface and what CNET reviewer Bonnie Cha calls, “a beautiful touch screen.” It uses Windows Mobile 6.1 and offers Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, and a 3.2-megapixel camera. It also offers voice recognition for dialing and a pre-loaded YouTube application for viewing videos.

HTC Touch Diamond

LG VU CNET Review

LG Voyager - $199

LG Voyager CNET Review

LG Dare CNET Review

U.S. Carrier:Not announced yet.

Carrier service plan pricing: Verizon’s premium smartphone service with all you-can-eat data and messaging starts at $79.99 per month for 450 minutes a month of talk time. Add unlimited voice, and the price is $139 per month.

BlackBerry Bold

Apple also added GPS to the iPhone 3G, allowing the device to take advantage of location-based applications and services. The company also opened up the device to third-party developers and will soon launch an Apps Store for new iPhone applications. The new iPhone will also support Microsoft Exchange server, which means subscribers will be able to get their work e-mail on the iPhone 3G. And finally the company has greatly improved the battery life of the device stating that it should get a solid five hours of 3G talk time.

What makes it cool? The LG Dare has a touch screen that allows icons to be dragged and dropped so that it can be customized for shortcuts on the home screen. It offers a sketch pad that allows users to draw pictures that can be sent via MMS to friends. It also has a 3.2 megapixel camera with face detection, panorama photo stitching, and SmartPic technology designed for taking photos in low light. It offers an embedded camcorder. And like the Voyager, it can be used with Verizon’s VCast Music and Video services.

Carrier service plan pricing: Not available.

BlackBerry Bold: $300 (estimated price)

What makes it cool?
This is the first Sony Ericsson phone to use Windows Mobile from Microsoft. It also has a very cool arc slider design. The phone has a touch screen on top and a full QWERTY keypad underneath. It has Wi-Fi and comes with a 3.2 megapixel camera, assisted-GPS, a multimedia player, 400MB of internal memory, and a microSD expansion slot.

Below is a list of seven alternatives to the iPhone 3G. Most of these phones have a touch-screen. All are 3G capable. All offer MMS messaging, which the iPhone doesn’t offer. And all come with a full HTML browser. Some offer Wi-Fi, which even the original iPhone offers, and some have embedded GPS just like the iPhone 3G.

Carrier: AT&T (expected later this summer.)

What are its shortcomings?
The phone doesn’t offer Wi-Fi, which means it can’t access the Internet when not in cell phone range. The lack of Wi-Fi also means that users can’t Web surf at super fast speeds when in a Wi-Fi hotspot. And lastly, it’s not integrated with Microsoft Outlook, which means subscribers can’t access work email. They can only get Web email.

These missing features could help give some phone manufacturers an edge with consumers looking for the perfect multimedia smartphone. But features aren’t the only thing that consumers consider when buying a new phone. They also consider price. And even though AT&T is selling the 8GB model for the subsidized price of $200, the carrier still charges more than any other mobile phone operator for its bundle of services, making the iPhone 3G one of the most expensive to own phones on the market. For 450 minutes of talk time a month, unlimited data, which includes Web surfing and email, and text messaging, AT&T charges about $90 a month. Add unlimited voice and the price shoots up to $150.

What are its shortcomings?
The Web browser and media player is not as good as the iPhone, according to CNET Reviews editor Nicole Lee. There’s no Wi-Fi. And also no integration with Microsoft Outlook to access work email.

RIM is also rumored to be readying a new phone called the BlackBerry Thunder that will be the company’s first touch screen device. The phone hasn’t been announced yet, so this is all rumor. But it’s expected to be released on Verizon Wireless and Vodafone networks in the third quarter of 2008, according to the blog The Boy Genius Report. It will likely be launched on other networks after that.

LG Dare

HTC Diamond CNET Review

Apple’s iPhone 3G hits store shelves on Friday, but if you haven’t been struck with
iPhone fever, don’t fret. There are plenty of alternatives that offer similar style and features. And they may even be easier on your wallet in the long run.

Carrier: AT&T

What are its shortcomings? The Touch Diamond won’t be available in the U.S. for months. And the current version isn’t optimized for the U.S. market. Cha also described it as sluggish and said the call quality is subpar.” There’s also no expansion slot for more memory.

Sony Ericsson Experia X1

HTC Diamond –$700 for an unlocked phone without a subsidy

What are its shortcomings? The BlackBerry Bold doesn’t have a touch screen. And it’s not available yet. It is expected to hit AT&T stores later this summer and will likely be added to the other carriers’ line-ups later in the year.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 -pricing not yet available

Carrier: This phone will be released mid-September. And a U.S. carrier hasn’t been announced yet.

What are its shortcomings? The screen lacks multi-touch functionality. This means you can’t pinch a page and blow it up like you can on the iPhone. It also offers much less memory than the iPhone. It doesn’t support Wi-Fi or instant messaging. And German said he wasn’t impressed with the email interface. And its call quality wasn’t up to snuff to boot.

Carrier service plan pricing: Sprint’s “Simply Everything” plan with 450 minutes of talk-time and unlimited messaging, data services that include email and Web surfing costs $69.99 per month. Add unlimited voice, and the service costs $99 a month.

Carrier Plan pricing: Subscribers can get 450 minutes of talk time, unlimited mobile Web, texting, and live broadcast TV for $105 per month. Add unlimited voice, and the service is $165 per month.

To some Apple fans, phones such as the Samsung Instinct or the HTC Diamond are simply iPhone wannabes. But to others they are cool phones in their own right with unique features and capabilities. Below I’ve compiled a cheat-sheet that highlights key features and points out short-comings of seven possible iPhone alternatives. I’ve also thrown in pricing information, not only for the phone, but also for the service plans that go with them.

Samsung Instinct CNET Review

What makes it cool?
This is the “first cell phone we’ve seen that throws some direct competition Apple’s way,” CNET editor Kent German wrote in his review of this phone, which just hit the market last month. Physically, the Instinct looks a lot like the iPhone. It also has integrated GPS and works with Microsoft Outlook to allow people to get work email on the phone. But it also offers some unique features. Unlike the iPhone 3G, the Instinct offers Sprint’s mobile TV service and has a built-in camcorder.

What makes it cool? The LG Voyager, which has been on the market for nearly a year, supports Verizon’s VCast Video service, which offers a slew of TV channels, including CBS Mobile, Comedy Central, ESPN Mobile TV, and NBC 2Go. It also offers VCast Music, which allows users to purchase music directly over the cell phone network. By contrast, the iPhone plays movies and TV shows purchased from its iTunes media store and doesn’t allow for over-the-air music downloads. The Voyager also flips up to expose a full QWERTY keypad.

The biggest change to the iPhone in the new version is speed. As the name implies, the iPhone 3G will operate over AT&T’s HSDPA 3G network. Today, that network can theoretically deliver download speeds of about 3.6Mbps. But in the real world, speeds are closer to 400Kbps to 700Kbps. Recently, AT&T’s wireless chief said the network is being upgraded and will soon offer theoretical download speeds of 20Mbps and actual download speeds of between 4Mbps and 6.6Mbps.

LG Vu — $299

What makes it cool?
The coolest thing about the LG Vu is that it offers live broadcast TV. AT&T uses the MediaFlo network to deliver the service, which is operating in more than 55 markets in the U.S.

Carrier: Sprint Nextel

Carrier service plan pricing: Verizon’s premium smartphone service with all you-can-eat data and messaging starts at $79.99 per month for 450 minutes a month of talk time. Add unlimited voice, and the price is $139 per month.

CORRECTION July 9 at 10:48 a.m. PDT: This article misstated the BlackBerry Bold’s display type. It does not have a touch screen. The story has been updated to reflect this change.

We have very high internal metrics our consumer products have to meet before coming out of beta. Our teams continue to work to improve these products and provide users with an even better experience. We believe beta has a different meaning when applied to applications on the Web, where people expect continual improvements in a product….Rather than the packaged, stagnant software of decades past, we’re moving to a world of regular updates and constant feature refinement where applications live in the cloud.

Um, no. That’s what is expected in the offline world, as well. A far better argument is Nicholas Carr’s: failure is part of the Google plan. Kick a lot of different tires to see which will hold up and drive more advertising dollars.

Tim O’Reilly recently came to Google’s rescue (as if it needed him to do so), slapping out at those like ReadWriteWeb that dare to criticize Google for creating a wide array of projects…but leaving 45 percent in the land of perpetual beta, as ComputerWorld recently noted.

That, at least, is a cogent plan, and one that justifies Google’s overwhelming number of product “failures.” But O’Reilly and Google don’t argue this defense. Instead they argue that the failures are really successes in the traditional sense of gaining market share and dollars associated with market share, leaving many of us to scratch our heads in wonder.

I believe Google uses its “perpetual beta” strategy as an internal excuse for poor craftsmanship and even poorer execution. Google disagrees, trying to spin its beta story for ComputerWorld as a positive thing and somehow different from traditional software:

commentary

True, as O’Reilly notes, Google’s Chrome browser and its Android mobile platform represent significant leaps at the future, and may end up significantly altering that future for the better. I agree. But this doesn’t mean that Google should get a free pass on roaring into new markets (e.g., comparison shopping with Froogle, e-mail with Gmail, etc.) and then underwhelming in product features and the corporate attention necessary to gain market share.

I think where O’Reilly really stumbles is in implying that the Google critiques stem from sour grapes. Hardly. In fact, the reason I and others criticize Google derives from a belief that its immense brain power should be churning out more than pretty artwork on its main page. Google has a fantastic opportunity to completely change the face of computing. Its attempts thus far have been middling at best.

Regardless, the real story in this as with Microsoft is that regardless of its successes or failures with products, any hint of Google entering a market is a death knell for start-ups looking to raise money in that area, when it really shouldn’t be. Their respective track records in their core businesses is awesome to behold. Their respective track records in most everything else? Nothing to fret about.

O’Reilly chides ReadWriteWeb for disparaging Google’s win rate (i.e., one win–albeit a big one–in its company history), which is probably fair, but then makes the mistake of holding up Google’s successes in maps and other “markets” that generate little cash and/or cost much cash (YouTube). He needn’t have bothered. Google can be a failure in everything else it does provided it keeps feeding its advertising machine. Microsoft? It had two big hits–Windows and Office–which have covered a multitude of sins in other product areas.

At the federal level, the tax credit for small wind turbines was increased this year, giving investors a 30 percent credit on the installation cost.

Installers and customers should be aware, for example, that nearby obstructions can have a significant impact. A 100-foot wind tower placed next to a 50-foot tree is effectively the same as a putting turbine on top of a 50-foot tower, which means it will get a lot less wind, Shaw said.

Following this review, the state revamped its wind power program with the hopes of getting only the best projects developed, said Christo. To get a rebate, installers are now required to do a more stringent wind study and use a specially designed software tool to assess the wind resources in a projected site.

The analysis is not the final word on small wind generators, but is significant because few states have done similar reviews, say the study’s authors.

To test urban wind turbines, Christo said the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust is sponsoring a “science experiment” to put up five turbines from different manufacturers at the Museum of Science, a project expected to go up this spring.

That study focused specifically on urban microwind turbines, some of which were roof-mounted. Overall, it found that the performance of these systems fell below expectations as well and that a number suffered technical glitches.

“The truth of the matter is that (urban wind) hasn’t been studied very much, at least in the U.S.,” said Shaw. “There’s a tremendous amount of uncertainty.”

“We’re certainly disappointed by the performance we’ve seen to date but we believe there is potential for microwind,” Christo said. “People just need to take a more critical look and be cautious.”

In an unscientific survey of the 351 towns in Massachusetts, Durrenberger found that 60 percent had no rules for or against wind turbines. Twenty percent specifically allow them and 20 percent have rules, such as height restrictions, that either disallow them or make it difficult to get permitting.

Data problem

The Massachusetts state analysis tried to pinpoint the reason for the underperforming turbines and found that installers often worked without sufficiently good information.

“You want to be internally honest about your (wind resource) assessments,” Shaw said. “The economics are going to probably be the best driver in Massachusetts.”

Photos: Small wind turbines take shape

BOSTON–Despite the growing enthusiasm for home wind turbines, an analysis of microwind turbines in Massachusetts found that they fell short of performance expectations.

The Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust commissioned a study last year to review electricity output from 21 small wind turbines in the state and the results were surprising: the data showed that the estimated production was about three times higher than the turbines’ actual production.

The problem is not that the technology doesn’t work. Aerovironment’s roof-mounted turbines installed at Boston’s Logan airport and other spots, for example, have performed well. The challenge is finding–and choosing–sites with sufficiently strong wind, particularly in cities.

“One of the challenges as an installer is that everyone has a windy site,” said Mark Durrenberger, the president of New England Breeze who also spoke at last week’s “small wind” panel. “But what you feel on the ground has nothing to do with what you have 100 feet up.”

The results from the Massachusetts study echoes a similar survey done in the U.K. over the past two years, called the Warwick Trials.

A state like Massachusetts has a good wind resource near the coast, but its hilly and woody terrain means that finding a good site requires some investigation.

With the growing interest in clean energy, dozens of different small wind turbine types have emerged from sources as varied as designer Philippe Starck to Aerovironment, a company with roots in military aircraft.

Good sites are places with smooth terrain like a field with minimal obstructions, according to the Cadmus Group, a consulting firm that performed the analysis for the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust. (Click for a PDF with slides of the study). Massachusetts as a whole has only an average wind resource.

The Swift wind turbine from Cascade Engineering, one of many new small wind turbines now available or being developed.

When it comes to optimizing for capturing wind energy, higher is usually better. His company will not install a turbine unless it’s 30 to 40 feet above any other obstructions, such as buildings and trees.

Performance issues aside, Durrenberger said that inconsistent zoning and not-in-my-back-yard (NIMBY) sentiment are also serious barriers to erecting a turbine.

Some cities, such as San Francisco and Seattle, have passed bylaws to specifically enable microwind generators. But the rules vary from town to town or are ambiguous.

“I promise you, if you want to put one of these things up, you will hear from your neighbors…so contact them before the building inspector does,” he said. But “despite NIMBY and the folks in Nantucket (opposing the offshore wind project Cape Wind), there is still a lot of support for wind so you could change your town’s bylaws.”

(Credit:
Cascade Engineering)

Having already installed a few turbines in Massachusetts, Durrenberger offered a few simple rules of thumb on small wind turbines. He doesn’t recommend roof-mounted models because of the vibration they cause in a home. “It will be like having a sub-woofer in your basement,” he said.

NIMBY and urban wind

Massachusetts on average is far from having the best wind resources in the U.S.–it ranks right in the middle of pack compared to other states.

The Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust was “taken aback” at the discrepancy in expected versus actual performance and made changes to its “small wind” rebate program earlier this month to address the issue, said James Christo, a program director from the quasi-public state agency. Christo spoke on a panel on small wind–defined as less than 10-kilowatt capacity machines–at the Northeast Sustainable Energy Building Energy Conference here last week.

Area wind maps for the region tended to overestimate on average by 10 percent how good the wind was for certain locations, according to Shawn Shaw, an analyst at the Cadmus Group who worked on the study.

Higher is better

Most small wind turbines are scaled-down versions of giant utility-scale turbines, which look like a fan with three blades. Southwest Windpower’s Skystream, for example, is rated at 1.8 kilowatts with at least 10 mile-per-hour winds, which should offset a large portion of a home’s electricity consumption.

But there are many other types, including vertical axis wind turbines, such as Mariah Power’s Windspire, where a structure spins on a pole to generate electricity.

Another problem is the rated capacity–how much electricity a turbine can produce–that manufacturers publish aren’t always reliable for extrapolating expected performance, Shaw found. Industry associations are trying to come up with standard ways of reporting capacity which will help, he added.