Blow Wind, Blow

    We were “Sooners” on this day.  We arrived at 11:15 instead of the 11:45 on the invitation.  We had permission.  It was NextEra’s Ribbon Cutting ceremony marking the near-completion of the windfarm.  We were among the first to tour the nearest wind tower.

  

    You can see the first landing.  Two more above that.  The elevator doesn’t work too well, so use the ladder at right.  They didn’t offer to let us climb it.  I didn’t feel much like it anyway, suffering from my head cold.

 

     Our electrical engineer kept the hosts occupied for nearly an hour.  Listening in was quite interesting, even if I didn’t understand a lot of it.  The wheel turns from 12 to 20 rpm.  A step-up gear box converts that to 1000’s of rpm needed to turn the generator. Maintenance includes checking and changing oil in the gear box.

     At 12 rpm, the tip of the blades are traveling about 130 mph.

     Voltage is stepped up to the thousands of volts at the sub station.  Don’ touch that wire.

      The MET tower, among other things, alerts techs to static electricity in the vicinity. If the level gets tool high, they must exit pronto as a lightning strike is a good possibility. Wouldn’t want to be in that tube when a bolt of lightning hits.  If you survived the strike, the thunder would ruin your ears and several other parts of your anatomy.

    Land owners were the special guests, so time to meet up with the neighbors.  And then there were the speakers.

 

     Here they all are playing with their miniature wind generators, their reward for having been guest speakers:

     Left to right: NextEra CEO Pimentel, State Rep. Gardner, County Commissioner Beedy, Public Service Exec. Eves, and of course, Governor Hickenlooper.

 

      Here they all are having just cut the ribbon.  Now the wind can blow, bearing man’s harness and serving his will.  Maybe.