Wind Power is Big II: The Proof

Not very good proof, but proof nonetheless. As I've mentioned before, wind turbine parts are HUGE. While I was travelling up and down the Columbia Gorge this week, I saw several of them heading east and several empty trailers heading west. According to the people I was working with, they've seen hundreds of these things. So those folks are jaded, but I still think big machines are cool. Although I saw lots of these things, I was taking pictures while I was driving, so I necessarily didn't put much effort into aiming. It was pure point and shoot. I mainly got photos of parts of my van including the dead bugs on the windshield, a few pics of blurry trees and an off ramp that was maybe 100 feet in front of the truck I was trying to get. Oh, well. I did however manage to capture a couple pics that give an idea of the size involved. Unfortunately, due to angles and such, the perspective distorts things a bit.

This is a truck I passed that was carrying two of the turbine blades. These things are about 150 feet long. I can't imagine what kind of planning has to go into transporting these things, since I'm pretty sure that wouldn't make it through most intersections.

To put the blades into perspective, this is a normal truck from about the same perspective and you can see how much closer the cab is. A typical trailer is a maximum of 53 feet long, so imagine three of these things strung together, and not those stubby ones that are actually strung together. It would take four or five of those.

This is a picture of the blades from the side. It's the best I could do passing the truck at a combined 120 mph or so.

I'm guessing the wind turbine business will only be picking up. Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski is waiting to sign Senate Bill 838, which will require 25% of Oregon's power to be generated from green sources like wind and geothermal by 2025, and apparently our existing hydropower doesn't count. It has passed our State Senate and is likely to pass the house soon. This probably means rate hikes in the short term, but the way things are going, we'll probably break even or better eventually.

This waterfall is not related to wind power at all, but I caught it by accident and I like it. It's from what is called a hanging valley. It is a remnant of the Missoula floods that shaped the Gorge during the last ice age. It was a normal valley at some point until half of Montana drained through it all at once (a bunch of times) and ripped out the end of it.

This is just a nice picture of the Gorge. I stopped at a rest stop/view point close to Portland just for fun since I had never done so and I liked the view. It was a beautiful day.