Windmills in California

Windmills of Altamont Pass in my neighborhood Livermore, CA

Windmills dot the landscape as Interstate 580 passes through the Altamont Pass Wind Farm

The Altamont Pass Wind Farm is located in the Altamont Pass of the Diablo Range in Central California. It is one of the earliest wind farms in the United States. The wind farm is composed of 4930 relatively small wind turbines of various types, making it at one time the largest farm in the world in terms of capacity. Altamont Pass is still the largest concentration of wind turbines in the world, with a capacity of 576 megawatts (MW), producing about 125 MW on average and 1.1 terawatt-hours (TWh) yearly.

Palm Springs Wind Energy

Increasingly popular as alternative sources of energy, wind turbine generators are a type of windmill that produces electricity by harnessing the wind. Wind turbine generators are much less harmful to the environment than burning fossil fuels, but they do require average wind speeds of at least 21 km/h (13 mph). The largest of these windmills stands 150 feet tall with blades half the legend of a football field. The compartments at the top containing the generator, hub and gearbox weigh 30,000 to 45,000 pounds.

A wind turbine's cost can range upwards to $300,000 and can produce 300 kilowatts - the amount of electricity used by a typical household in a month. Almost all of the currently installed wind electric generation capacity is in California. The high-tech megatowers are engineered in cooperation with NASA and nursed by federal and state subsidies. This wind farm on the San Gorgonio Mountain Pass in the San Bernadino Mountains contains more than 4000 separate windmills and provides enough electricity to power Palm Springs and the entire Coachella Valley.

The North Wind 250 is an advanced technology, 250 kW wind turbine developed by the New World Power Technology Company under the DOE Wind Turbine Development Program. The two-bladed, upwind turbine uses aircraft-style aileron controls that deploy in high winds to smooth out energy spikes. Wind Energy as a Significant Source of Electricity .