Several months ago when I was driving to Houston, I passed several trucks (12 in my estimate) carrying giant windmill blades. Each truck carried one blade - the root of the blade was attached to the back of the truck, then there were wheels attached to the tip of the blade at the back, so that the blade itself was its own support down its length. Last month I drove to Houston and saw a couple more of the same thing coming North on I-45.
But the amazing thing was their size - I estimated 100 feet long each, and the chord of the blade near the root was about 12 feet across. These are giant wings.
A friend was recently driving through Northeast Texas, West Oklahoma, and Southeast Colorado, and came across a whole farm of these giant windmills, where the road went right through the middle of it, and from his description, these must be the same blades that I had seen.
I’ve seen the windmill farm around Sweetwater, Texas, but those don’t seem nearly large enough. On the other hand, they’re a fair distance from the road, so my perception of their size may not be correct.
So where exactly are these giant windmills? And Google Earth links? I’d like to read more about them.
I’ve seen then going west on North Loop 820 in Fort Worth. I bet they’re the same ones if you’ve seen them going north on I-45. I supposed they were going to continue west on I-20.
You’re right on your second guess: the Sweetwater 1.5 megawatt turbines look much smaller than they actually are because of their distance from the road. When you’re right up next to them they’re those same e-freakin’-normous blades you’ve seen going down the highway.
They’re still building new ones there, and there are new wind farms popping up all over West Texas. There’s a new one in Albany that comes to mind, and a few others. I’ll try to find a google Earth link after lunch.
Check the REpower5M, currently the world’s largest wind turbine. It generates 5MW of power. Each rotor blade weighs 18 tons with a total rotor diameter of 413 feet.
parvnik, I think you’re right - the Sweetwater windmills are the same ones. I’ve done more searching, and found one page that said the rotor diameter is 70 meters, so each blade would be more than 100 feet long.
I’d like to read more on these, like how they’re made, and would appreciate any links.
They might hit 287 at Ft Worth and come up to Amarillo. Cielo is building a 160MW facility west of Amarillo at Widorado. I’ve seen some of the towers I suspect are for that project go buy. Cielo also built the Llano Estacado wind farm at White Deer, east of Amarillo. There is a wind farm near Weatherford in far western Oklahoma right on I-40, also. These are all fairly large wind turbines.
[slight tangent] At first, I thought the OP was exagerating a bit for the blade length. I realize that some of those windmill blade lengths are greater than 100’ but I was skeptical that a blade of over 100’ feet was being transported in one piece over the road because I knew that the length limit on Texas highways was 75’. Boy, was I wrong! I have yet to see a vehicle of 180 feet overall length moving down the road but that would be cool.
Yeah, they pass through town here and in the surrounding counties pretty regularly, occassionally several of them in convoy. It’s a pretty impressive site…unless they’re in front of you with no room to pass!
They must be permitted for it, I see them about once a month. The cord on the airfoil is maybe 10-12 ft. Recently, I’ve seen several coloumns that I was assuming to be the towers for them. The trailers (really just dollies) are around 80 ft long.
There’s a windfarm with hundreds (?) of these about ten miles east of me. We can see them easily from the back yard, and the red lights flickering on top are pretty at night.
Yeah, I take my entertainment wherever I can get it.
I’ve also seen them north of me, near Clear Lake, and west, in South Dakota.
They’re yuuuuuuuge. I’m told the thing on top is as big as a Winnebago camper.
I was sure the towers had elevators inside, but nope, they have a circular staircase. I’ll bet you make sure you have all your tools before making the climb.
I’ve also been told that the landowners (mostly farmers) are paid a lease fee of $4,000 a year for each windmill on their property. That seems a bit high, but that’s what they’re saying.
