The Mrs. said "lets go look at those windmills" - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

t walgamuth · #1 04-02-2008, 11:40 PM

I was vegging out after supper and the Mrs. came up and said lets go look at the windmills up in Benton County. It was a beautiful sunny evening so I said lets go. Its about a half hour drive and I napped a bit and we came into Fowler which is the county seat but even though we could see for miles in each direction in that beautiful flat farming country we couldn't spot any.

I said lets stop at the gas station and ask....so we did....the local folks seemed pretty proud of their windmills and gave us excellent directions to the area where they were.

We stopped at the little IGA and bought a sugar free cherry pie and a can of whoop cream and some plastic silverware and headed out that way.

After driving about another ten miles west on SR18 we started seeing the windmills. There must have been at least a hundred of them over an area that may have measured about three miles square, more or less. I would estimate that 10% were operating. Most had the three huge blades installed but were not operating yet.

The scale of them is hard to grasp, but viewed from a half mile I pointed out a large tracked and enclosed cab backhoe sitting next to it. It looked as if the hoe would fit inside the round base (It turned out not to be quite that big though).

So we drove til we found one close to the road and pulled up to the no tresspassing sign and opened our pie. We sat there and passed the pie back and forth, eating a few forks full and then adding more Whoop cream until we both felt probably we had had more than enough.....while contemplating one HUGE windmill.

After that we drove a little further along....I really wanted to see a foundation that was not covered up because I was interested in how much concrete it takes to anchor such a device....

We found another one close to the road which had a no tresspassing sign that had fallen and drove right up to the base of it. I got out and estimated the height up to the hub at around 200 to 220 feet. I have heard the blades are about 120' long. Having encountered them on the road on incredibly long trailers on our recent Texas trip I believe that estimate. I estimate the steel tube at the base to be about 15 or 16' in diameter with a concrete base that that sits directly on that is about 2' larger.

Based on the disturbed soil I estimated that the concrete foundation that is under the ground might be as much as 70' in diameter. Based on the foundation an Engineer friend designed for me for a 60' road sign for the local Simon Mall I suspect that the base that is buried could easily be 70' in diameter and fifteen to 20' thick and might sit from ten to twenty feet below the suface since the surface dirt helps provide weight to counteract overturning forces.

I don't know how close I am but if I am at all close that would be roughly $220,000 worth of concrete not to mention digging, reinforcing and labor.

Some body has apparently made some pretty good calculations on the payback.

I suppose the big oil companies are investing in them so when they jack up the cost of fuel enough they can make the windmills pay themselves off sooner!

Anyway the windmills are a lovely sight to see, especially compared to any other type of electrical generating devices.

We will remember our eating pie and observing windmills for a long time to come.

Tom W

cjlipps · #2 04-02-2008, 11:57 PM

About 50 miles or so. We counted about 150 in a staggered line about 5 miles long. And they are absolutely ginormous! I've seen lots of blades on trucks and they don't even look real.
I have a client whose relative signed "wind rights" to his land to the local electric supplier. He owns land that has an East-West ridge about a mile long and is situated fairly high (for NW Oklahoma

) No windmills yet but if and when they erect them they will begin paying him royalties.
I haven't done this myself but I'm told you can do a search for the location with the highest average wind velocity in the US and it's about an hour from me.
Enjoyed your story Tom. They really are a sight to behold. I need to go up close to one sometime.

123c · #3 04-03-2008, 12:00 AM

Last October, I was passing through near Goldendale, WA, where there are bunch of these windmills, there was a small convoy of the parts being trucked in, the blade for this things are huge, they had to stop the traffic for the convoy to turn down the narrow gravel road. I would have to say, it was an awsome site to see, and wish I could see more of that in the near future...

I know not to far down the Columbia River from me, there are a few wind farms, I want to get a closer look at them, maybe I will do that on my next day off. On another note, Yahoo and Microsoft has some server farms out in the direction which I want to find as well, so I can do that on the same trip.

Crazy_Nate · #4 04-03-2008, 12:01 AM

They truly are a beautiful sight. I can remember flying into California, and seeing hundreds of them out the window...from a plane at a minimum of 15000 ft.

Well...of course I love 'em. I work for a lab that does nothing but Wind Power stuff

. Some day, maybe I'll be working for a manufacturer or a government lab.

kerry · #5 04-03-2008, 12:05 AM

Thanks Tom.

LaRondo · #6 04-03-2008, 12:32 AM

Tom, you're not turning into a 'Don Quichote' now, are you?

The windmills of La Mancha:

pastmaster · #7 04-03-2008, 12:55 AM

HI Tom,

I liked your thoughts and observations on the windmills. We as a nation are going to have to use other resources that are available to us, on a bigger and more individual way, in order to get control of our energy needs and the hemorraging of our money. How can anyone save money for retirement and your kids college funds?

They are going to do the same thing up here in Gratiot County, Central Michigan, with windmill farms, because we are efficient for windpower, vs. solar. Maybe WalMart, in it's conquest for the all mighty buck, may design and start selling individual, home units. The output might run the refrigerator and TV, and maybe the computer, on a windy day? Every little bit helps!

As big as they are, I'm waiting for the first enterprising soul to start selling advertising on them, you can see them for miles!

djugurba · #8 04-03-2008, 01:26 AM

When I was a kid we drove through a massive array somewhere in California, and I remember wondering why they weren't anywhere to be found when we moved back east. Then, only a year or so ago, I was stunned to find a few visible from the Turnpike near Somerset, PA. Mounted on hilltops in generally hilly country, they look incredibly large and impressive.

Here in Mass, there is a stupid debate going on regarding putting wind turbines in Nantucket Sound. The power generation would be massive, but the owners of the estates facing east along cape cod are afraid of losing their precious view. Boo hoo.

They are certainly more attractive than coal strip-mines or oil fields.

LaRondo · #9 04-03-2008, 02:34 AM

Palm Desert, California "Windmill Farms", Windturbines

mgburg · #10 04-03-2008, 04:35 AM

Somewhere, just off I-39, between Rockford and Bloomington (Illinois), they have a windmill farm, just like the picture LaRondo has above...the first time we saw it though, it was at night...with their strobe lights, blinking away like 10-story high lightning-bugs...all out of sync with one another...at first, we couldn't determine what the heck it was...then, as we got closer, the ambient lighting in the area revealed the turbines...

In the daytime, when they were ALL TURNING, it was just the neatest thing to see...

The next time I'm down that way, I'm stopping by for a closer look...I'm hoping they're all spinning...I want to HEAR what the whole plantation sounds like when its running...

Maybe someone on the forum here can pin-point exactly where we saw this group of windmills...anyone?

KarTek · #11 04-03-2008, 06:18 AM

Tom, you're becoming quite the travelogue guy! You're wife is cool for suggesting this little trip. I've always liked windmills and started looking into putting one here. Home versions are prohibitively expensive along with the fact that I would have to perch it on top of a 100' tower to get above the tree line. (No one actually knows if wind exists here because we all live among the trees and there's no open spaces!)

Funny thing about the windmills in Cali is that I've heard many residents dislike them for their appearance on the landscape despite their beneficial effect. I for one, love interesting engineering stuff! It has a beauty all it's own.

alamostation · #12 04-03-2008, 07:00 AM

In the last few months I've made several trips to Houston and have never failed to see trucks loaded with windmill parts headed west.

I presume they were headed to a huge windmill farm near Sweetwater, Texas, which is a very windy area. West Texas is the perfect place for windmills, they are beautiful compared to the natural surroundings.

t walgamuth · #13 04-03-2008, 08:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LaRondo

Tom, you're not turning into a 'Don Quichote' now, are you?

The windmills of La Mancha:

I admit to a bit of Don Quixote.

Tom W

t walgamuth · #14 04-03-2008, 08:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LaRondo

Palm Desert, California "Windmill Farms", Windturbines

They looked like these.

I hear the tips of the blades are moving at around 200 mph.

I assume they have some type of controls that cause them to track the wind.

The blades are very very graceful looking.

Tom W

catmandoo62 · #15 04-03-2008, 08:38 AM

here in n.w. iowa they put up about 250 about 7 years ago,they assembled the rebar about 3 miles from me,i just happened by there one day and was talking to one of the guys standing there.the windmills they put up at that time were just like the old windmills most farms had with 4 legs and they tapered up to the top.the bases for each leg were 10 ft in diameter and set 36 ft in the ground at angles to correspond with the angle of the legs.