Saturday, June 27, 2009

Wind Power Production Growing Rapidly


On our just-completed 10,000 mile jaunt from our Tampa home to Washington State and back, we drove one time for 7 plus miles along I-90 watching a line of wind power machines. There must have been at least hundreds of the tall giants slowly whirling in the near-perpetual wind of the plains. I snapped the picture above through our motor home windshield.

A quick check in Google produced this report on 45% growth in these machines in 2007 alone (the most recent year for which data is apparently available.)

We also spotted hundreds more in other locations...South of Rockford, IL along I-39...in West Texas...and several other locations.

I found at many campgrounds there were entire teams of fellows who spent their Summers these days building the towers, and then stayed home in the winter when such construction is not possible.

I was surprised to hear that 30% of all new electric generation in 2007 was by these tall structures.

The times...and the power generation...they are a changing.

Duke