Guest Post by Debi

..
Nelda and Wind Turbines

Back in January of this year, Nelda and I took a photo trip to Big Spring and back. She told me how the size of the new wind turbines popping up everywhere here in West Texas fascinated her. When we saw a new field of wind turbines going up near Stanton, we jumped at the chance to get a closer look before they went into operation. The cute little purple figure is Nelda. How's that for giving you a feel for the size of these things?

She convinced me. Wind turbines' size is endlessly fascinating. I found a couple of videos on Youtube you might enjoy.

Here's a less than 4 minute video inside a wind turbine -- the first 30 seconds is of a traditional water windmill in Europe for comparison.

And here's a 10 minute video of installing a wind turbine on the St. Olaf College in Minnesota. Another awe inspiring take.

And lastly, here's some quick facts about the size of wind turbines found on the US Department of Energy web site:

The largest machine has blades that span more than the length of a football field, stands 20 building stories high, and produces enough electricity to power 1,400 homes.

I'm glad Nelda introduced me to the awe and respect of these non-polluting giants.

Stanton Wind Turbines

I am fascinated with the wind turbines that are being erected just about everywhere in Texas. Today Debi and I went to Big Spring and she took pictures of several old buildings and a bridge. I, being a total wimp sat in the car a lot of the time (it was cold out there), but I did get out and take a few pictures with my little "point and click" Kodac camera. On the way home we took a little side trip north of Stanton where there are many turbines being erected. We were able to get up very close to them. In fact, Debi took a picture of me standing next to one of them - those things are HUGE!!! It just about makes one dizzy to look up at the top when standing so close to one, at least it did me. I was happy for the chance to get so near them just to realize how very big they are, as they don't look so big at a distance. It was a very good day, mostly because I spent it with Debi.