Saab History

Pacific North West Saab Club Visit Wind Turbine Farm

Posted on 22. Oct, 2008 by Ryan.

Photo Credit: Aaron C. Gilbert

The Pacific North West Saab Owners Club in the United States has recently held a club outing at a wind turbine farm.

I find this venue quite interesting given that Saab used to manufacture wind turbines back in 1975 and as recent as 2003, Saab had their global launch of the 9-3 Sport Sedan through a shoot in the Canary Islands that had a scientific facility complete with wind turbines!

This particular location that they visited is Washington State’s largest wind farm appropriately located on top of a hillside in Ellensburg which has 127 turbines. A far cry from the old Saab-Scania turbine, these turbines pump out 230 Megawatts powering approximately 70,000 homes!

What a interesting idea for a Saab Club visit and what a place to take photos, surreal!

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Saab-Scania Manufactured Wind Turbines In 1975

Posted on 06. Aug, 2008 by Ryan.

Photo Credit: Saab-Scania AB

According to the book, the Saab-Scania Story, in 1975 Saab-Scania AB turned to their aerospace division at the time to use propellers not for aircraft propulsion, but for wind turbines.

At the time, much like today, everyone was looking to develop alternative energy sources. For this reason, Saab-Scania researchers and designers worked on the development of a wind-powered alternator, utilizing all of their aerodynamics and propeller engineering prowess.

The first wind turbine was installed in Älvkarleby, Sweden that produced a unit that stood at 32 meters (105 feet) tall, with a blade diameter of 18m (59 feet) that produced 150Megawatt hours per year.

If only this research, development and production continued since then.

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