GE's $12 billion wind turbine order backlog

Imagine you’re down the pub. Not hard, is it? Imagine that you’re at the bar and you’ve put in an order for a round for you and your chums. Imagine you’ve got the money to pay for it in your pockets and imagine your mates are bang up for another pint. Imagine that the landlord takes your order and 20 sheets, and you stand around waiting for a bit, every so often turning around to give your mates the thumbs up and make comedy drinking gestures.

Now imagine that the landlord shuffles back to you 10 minuted later looking a bit sheepish and saying that he can’t get the beer out of the taps and into the glasses, and that you’ll have to wait a bit longer for your round to be ready. Greenbang could envisage barstools flying around in this pub.

With that in mind, spare a thought for General Electric’s many customers who are still waiting for for their delivery of wind turbines. As news.com reports, GE’s backlog of wind turbine orders has grown from $11 billion in the last quarter of 2007 to $12 billion in the first quarter of 2008. It’s not as though GE has been dawdling though. During the quarter GE shipped 569 turbines, worth $1.8 billion, and orders leapt by 40 percent.

Greenbang suggests that they don’t move into the publican business anytime soon.