Wind can be dangerous and it can also provide fun. I’ve showed you that already over the past few days. But with a planet that is quickly running out of resources, wind can also provide us with power that does not generate greenhouse gases. In 2005, the township just south of us began building the Melancthon wind facility, Ontario’s first utility-scale wind facility. It is one of the largest such projects in Canada, with 133 wind turbines producing 200 megawatts of power. The facility is located near Shelburne, Ontario.
Seeing wind turbines from afar, it’s obvious that they are large, but when you stand at the base of one, it blows your mind. They are massive!! Living in the area, we were able to watch all the different stages of the assembly of a wind turbine. The base is composed of three pieces (I’m pretty sure it was 3) which are assembled with a massive crane, and then the head and the blades are lifted to the top. Each blade is brought to the site on a custom made tractor trailer bed where the blade sits on two sets of independent axles, with the rear axles being controlled remotely for turning. This means that the truck can turn part way around a corner, and then they have to get out and use the remote to work the rear axles to complete the turn. It was very fascinating to watch, and even though there is quite a bit of controversy nowadays about turbines, I think they are beautiful. Here are some photos of the building process and the finished product.
photos from the loonybin 
That is big. I wish more countries would utilize wind power. The States is way behind in this, even though if they could harness the power, the could provide energy to all of the lower 48 states. At least that is what I read once. I hope the technology will improve and spread like wildfire. I love this planet and I want it to be around for centuries to come.
I totally agree! I don’t want my grandchildren, great grandchildren, and so on to suffer because of our errors and greed.
The turbines are impressive and massive. Really terrific pictures! Wouldn’t be a nice view from your front door, though. And about that vibration and harmonic hum – oh, but the newest ones are better than the older ones – hope the eagles / raptors start being more careful and stop getting hacked up…not to mention those bats so necessary for agriculture. In any case would have been interesting to watch the installation
Thank you, and yes, around here people do have some of those complaints for sure, but the turbines are usually way out in a field, away from the person’s home, so I’m not sure that they hear much of a hum. A co-worker of mine has one on her property, and she doesn’t hear much noise from it, but she agrees that the bats are being killed all the time. What a shame! Unfortunately, nothing is perfect, and we are running out of fossil fuels. I like it better when they build the wind turbines out in the ocean.
No easy answer. What used to be picturesque mesas are now blighted with poles. Now we worry about oil companies – to be replaced by dependence on electric companies (often powered by coal)? Off shore has issue, too. We need creative research and new ideas! Let’s see what develops – it will be exciting, no doubt
I remember seeing these for the first time in Austria (back in 2004) – I loved it…. seeing it through the mist was soooooo eery…. I called them ‘ghost pumps’!!! 😉 Although I now know what it is, the name still sticks!!!! Unbelievably big…. can’t help but be amazed at these engineering feats!!! 🙂 Ons of my favourites is also the mobile crane…. (pictures in your photos above)…. Almost (to me) more amazing is that these little mobile cranes are able to pick up such a huge weight!!!! Freaken amazing!!!! 🙂 **
I think you would have been really fascinated watching them assemble the turbines. I drive past them every day on my way to work, and I would constantly stop and take pictures because I had never seen anything like it in my life. Their size blew my mind!
Amazing to think that something so huge, can seem so graceful. 🙂 They are a bit like enormous, silent scarecrows…
Yes, they do look quite graceful. I find it relaxing to watch them turning, and I really like your description – silent scarecrows – that’s great! 🙂
yes, I’ve seen one of those blades up close and they are monsters. wouldn’t want to get bipped in the head with one of them…
I agree!! Might need a little more than a bandaid! 🙂