Damn, Wind Turbines are BIG.

[PottedMeat]

I knew turbines were big but you don't really know until you see one - at least pass by.

Riding my bike along the I30 access road this morning I saw some cop cars escorting something big. Three oversized trailers ( they looked about 2 1/2 times longer than a regular truck ) each hauling a wind turbine blade.

 

[XZeroII]

Yup. They're big.

 

[KillerCharlie]

I knew they were big, but was shocked when I saw one drive by the first time too.

 

[miketheidiot]

i worked at a plant that built them this summer. The small ones were 40 yards long. The big ones dwarfed the small ones.

 

[CraKaJaX]

Yep. Pretty damn big.

 

[manlymatt83]

Depends. The ones in atlantic city are HUGE... saw those going up a few years back. I mean gigantic - those blades won't fit on a tractor trailor.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/i...nspecial2/rwind600.jpg

But the one in Dorchester, MA near my house is tiny and could fit in a car: really tiny, may not look like it:

http://content.zdnet.com/2347-...13624-13625.html?seq=1

 

[Jeff7]

Horray for indirect solar power.

 

[BoomerD]

I've seen a few on towers that were ~200 feet tall with blades nearly 50' long, but MOST are considerably smaller.(Wikipedia says the tallest in the world is in Germany and is 198 meters tall)

The Altamont Pass in Northern Kahleeforneeya has hundreds of wind-turbines of many different sizes, shapes, and configurations to work in varying wind speeds.

 

[compnovice]

198 m :Q

 

[ProfJohn]

I saw a boat load of them Maui. Amazing how big they are.

 

[Brutus04]

If you ever get out to Palm Springs, CA there are huge wind farms East of town...

Wind Farm Video

 

[StageLeft]

They are actually so big that they have to placed in ways to ensure that the torque from the blades does not affect local seismic patterns. One model I saw said that no more than 250 perfectly placed full-size turbines put in the right area of the earth and with heavy wind could actually add the equivalent of three days onto our year.

Now that was made up but it sounded cool.

 

[Dualist]

I think they were made big enough to catch on the most fierce winds.

 

[zerocool1]

Originally posted by: Dualist
I think they were made big enough to catch on the most fierce winds.

actually turbines need to furl to make sure they don't get damaged by heavy gusts.

 

[BoomerD]

Originally posted by: zerocool1

Originally posted by: Dualist
I think they were made big enough to catch on the most fierce winds.

actually turbines need to furl to make sure they don't get damaged by heavy gusts.

Many of the wind turbines in the Altamone wind farm are made to shut down in high winds, while others start in the higher winds. They have several different styles (including some odd-ball egg-beater looking units designed to take advantage of different wind speeds. IIRC, very few are designed to work above about 60 mph.