Alternative Power Soures

[jfholm]

Well guys,
I have been out of town a week and no internet. I had to take my 82 year old mother to her high school reunion. It actually turned out to be a great time. I saw my aunt's and uncles etc. It was in a small town in Utah names Milford. It is in Beaver County Utah. Seriously!

Just 12 miles north of Milford the are building a big wind farm with 97 huge wind generators. I have attached some pictures for you to see.

This is one of the big wind generators. If you will look at the bottom to the right you will see a small blue dot, that is my 5'5" Mom. The next one is blown up so you can see her better.





close up of the generator unit itself


a row of wind generators


and a beautiful Southern Utah sunset

[jakesportingservice]

Nice pics i always think about the ones in pennsylvania on the turn pike near somerset when we go past there and thhose things are huge .

Your mother standing beside them really puts thing in perspective .

Lucky for me i have internet while im on vacation because ocean city maryland is getting a pretty healthy dose of rain.

Jake

[Flash]

Yeah we have a Huge farm of them on I-80 E, just out of Evanston Wy.

What's amazing is how slow they turn and still make energy.
The blades pitch is adj, so that they can turn with a 5 mph wind and can also turn at the same speed with a 100+ mph wind............or completely still at that kinda of wind speed.

If i had to guess i would say that the blades or shaft turns at around 10 rpm.........Maybe more but it is a vary slow spin.

Ever past a semi, halling "one" of them blades, for the wind mills?
Requires an oversize load, special trailer, and pilot cars/truck to get it down the road. They are Hug!!!!

[slracer]

OK everyone, raise your hand if you've ever been to Milford. John, I have to admit that I HAVE! Rode the PC800 to Bonneville one year. Spent the night in Cedar City, then headed out through Minersville, Milford, and Garrison on my way to Ely, NV before running down (up?) the final stretch of highway to Wendover. Milford had a gas station, this is important when you only have 4 gallons max in the tank! As I remember, it was some pretty nice country.

It looks like these generators are popping up all over the country. There has been a big "farm" next to I-10 just west of Palm Springs for many years, and on my last trip through Mojave, CA the farm there has tripled (or more) in size in the last 2 years. Another one is under construction out here near Corona, NM (out in the middle of nowhere) and our city council just "approved" wind power here in Ruidoso last week so I guess I can build my own! The problem as I understand it is that they don't know what to do with the energy generated by them. It's use it or lose it as there is currently no way to store what is generated if the demand isn't there at the same time. Now (tongue-in-cheek) I'm worried about what is going to happen to the worldwide wind patterns as we start to "steal" energy from the wind with all of these things? The wind has to slow down and that will probably cause more global warming! :p -- Doug

[jfholm]

btw, I think it is PETA, is spreading how harmful they are to birds and bats. Some may have been hurt but not like has been spread. I went over to Cedar City to see an aunt and she is raising one of her granddaughters. The granddaughter was pretty convinced with how bad they are per what she had been told in high school.

I told her we could prevent all this if she would give up her internet and stereo and big screen tv and lights and warm bath. Then again she would also probably have to give up her iPod and the timing system they use to time her when she runs track. Oh yeah, she also needs to start walking instead of driving her new car. The argument ended

btw Doug, the sunset picture is in the mountains west of Milford above the road to Ely just before Garrison.

John