Tehachapi Windmills

The famous windmills of Tehachapi, California. Shot along Tehachapi Boulevard north of State Highway 58 in 1993. Copyright © 2005, Jason Paul Kazarian. All rights reserved. More at:

http://leftbrainedgeeks.com/

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• tehachapi
• windmills
• alternative
• electric
• power
• california
• wind

[jasbcor]

That hillside looks like hell now.

[jpkazarian]

Well, Southern California Edison wants to get 1,500 megawatts out of the farm.

[jigglesnap]

how much do the all generate?

[jpkazarian]

Probably when this was shot, some of the generators shown were in the ten to twenty kilowatt range.

[acnicolet]

final note: the 5000 turbines' output could be replaced today by a realistic estimate of 120-150 modern Vestas 3MW wind turbines.

[bigdougo]

@jigglesnap more like 100 KW give or take, new ones are up to 3 MW

[flyinbryan1619]

those are neat. wat are they made of? do they really keep it cooler there?

[azrocker1234567]

"looks like hell now"? Have you ever seen mountain top removal…?

[rockerwannabea]

I drove through this area in July 2011 and I would say about half of these turbines were not spinning (despite the wind). When govco pours millions of dollars into subsidizing this "green" power, they don't considser maintenance, decommissioning or true life cycle cost. Windmill power is a joke (like ethanol) which is why it can't compete and survive in the free market without YOUR tax money...

[BowedOak1]

You cannot say industrial deaths from wind turbine worker accidents are being caused by wind power. In 2009 alone there were over 4000 fatalities in industrial accidents which was down about 1000 from 08 because of so many lay offs. When someone dies from wind residue poison, then you can compare them.

If you want to argue inefficiency or ugliness, fine but don't pretend wind causes deaths like the 1400 miners annually killed from black lung disease.

[campbelcher]

@jigglesnap Smallest turbine on that Zond systems (now GE) site is 125KW but most have rotor extensions adding additional 10 to 15 KW. Also many much larger machines have been constructed there so they produce more than double the 21MW from when I worked there.

[rickcain2320]

@jasbcor

Looks like hell? Yeah lets just put a nuclear plant there instead, then all the neighbors have 2 headed babies.

[eyescreamcake]

@dgcasey0325 Of course that number includes Chernobyl. What other deaths are there? A handful of industrial accidents? The vast majority of nuclear power deaths are from a single event: Chernobyl. If you consider the amount of energy produced, wind power is approximately 4 times as deadly as Chernobyl.

[dgcasey0325]

@eyescreamcake Are you serious? Sadly, I'm sure you are. Because quite obviously you're not adding into your figures the deaths of those who died in and around Chernobyl or those that have and will die within the next couple of years as a direct result of what happened in Japan this year. I'm sure they don't matter to you. And for what it's worth, I'm pro-nuclear. I just won't sugarcoat the numbers like you. To each his own, I guess.

[eyescreamcake]

@dgcasey0325 Are you serious? I included several news story headlines and some records from the Caithness Wind Turbine Accident site, which contains data on 78 fatalities caused by wind power, 55 of whom are wind industry workers and 23 are members of the public. This list is not even close to comprehensive; it's just the ones they've heard of. According to the "Wind Works" advocacy website, wind power has killed 0.15 people per TWh of energy produced. This is about 4 times as bad as nuclear.