Yesterday we decided to do some last minute Christmas shopping (I think I'm done now ;) )and then afterwards go for a drive to see the new Wind Farm that's being built here in Central Illinois. The Twin Groves Wind Farm will be one of the largest wind farms in the nation! When completed it will have 267 turbines producing enough power for 120,000 homes. That's a lot of wind power! These things are massive, the blades are 130 feet long! It's really hard to get the proper perspective looking at these pictures, but if you look at the picture of the truck, that's only 1 section! There are 3 sections and then the top portion that holds the blades.
While I think that using a renewable resource as wind is a wonderful thing, I'm glad I don't have to look at these everyday. I know that sounds strange considering we're getting a cell tower on our property. I can't explain it, the cell tower seems less imposing as these turbines. Anyway, I thought you might enjoy some of the pictures we took yesterday.
Here's one section on the special semi truck they use to transport them from the railroad to the site. It's just amazing too see. They had to construct special turning lanes on the roads because these trucks cannot make a 90 degree turn like normal trucks can!
Here's the crane adding a section to one of the turbines. If you look VERY closely you can see a normal pickup truck in front of the section still on the ground. That gives you a sense of how HUGE these things are!
These are the special carriers they had to build to transport the blades. Rob saw some blades coming into Bloomington on the train the other day. It took him almost 5 minutes to realize what exactly he was looking at! 
Just another viwe of a partially completed turbine. Phase 1 of the construction should be completed by April 2007.
Here's a view of just a few of the completed windmills! In one picture we took you could count over 19 windmills!
3 comments:
Aren't those the coolest things? My BFF lives in a teeny tiny town in MT and they have a wind farm about 5 miles away....it's VERY hard to get perspective, we got to check out a damaged blade they had on the ground. very cool.
Thank you for sharing this entry. I was in SW Minnesota last week and got to see some wind farms. They are really mesmerizing to watch. I very much appreciate the pictures you have posted. I especially like the shots of those being assembled.
What was very cool was then seeing the wind farm from a plane on my way home. That tells you how big these things are. Glad to find your blog, fellow stamper!
That is cool - I saw some in Ireland last month - renewable power is so important!
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