Colossal blade of a wind turbine - Portugal

A few nights ago we stopped at a gas station of a Portuguese highway to rest for a few minutes, and suddenly came across this little baby.

We asked the gas station lady if she knew what it was, and she said she didn't: it was just there, when she'd arrived for work that day. Then I asked if it's even permitted to drop things like these unannounced. She said she didn't know. But then again, removing it would be impossible :D

Its size and shape, the fact that at least one wind farm is currently being created in the Algarve (south of Portugal), and a small specs sheet attached to it led us to believe to be one of the 3 blades to be attached to one of the turbines. This was later confirmed:
Pics from the transportation company's website:
http://www.solenha.com/galeria_imagens.php?id=tubos#ampliar

That baby was at least 40m long, and if my memory serves me right, it weighed 80t [edit: according to Teratornis's comment, it couldn't have been 80t].

It was just beautiful :D You would have to be there to appreciate its magnitude though.

P.S: Some truck drivers pulling in to the gas station stared in awe, some cheering and bowing in a playful sign of rezpekt! :)

my tumblr blog: http://sahbapasta.tumblr.com

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• windturbine
• turbine
• power
• transportation
• turbineblade

[Teratornis]

According to the LM Glasfiber site, the LM 61.5 P is the currently worlds longest wind turbine blade at 61.5 m, and weighs 18 tons. It goes on the world's currently largest wind turbine by REpower. Perhaps the blade you saw weighs 8t rather than 80t. A wind turbine nacelle is one of the heavier components shipped at one piece, requiring a trailer with many more wheels than the one in the video.

[sahbapasta]

wow, thank you for your very enlightening comment :)

[Teratornis]

Thank you for the enlightening video. I like to see wind power development from around the world.

If you are interested in the technical details, consider joining Wikipedia and helping the other volunteers build the world's largest encyclopedia, in every language. Wikipedia has extensive articles about every energy topic, including wind power; we need more people to help out. Look me up as User:Teratornis and read my user page about Energy. Sorry, YouTube won't let me put a link in a comment.

[sahbapasta]

sweet, thank you! :)

[lggs]

36 mt long

[hothaz19]

omg thats insanely big!