Today while we traveled out of Colorado, through New Mexico, and into Texas we came upon another large windfarm project in the Panhandle of Texas. This is not new to us, we have seen many, many windfarms as we’ve traversed the country. Chances are you have seen them in your home areas or travels as well.
The idea of generating electricity from wind is certainly not new. Some small scale systems were tried at the turn of the last century, built from modified water pumping windmills of the old western ranches. Then in the 1930’s, with the increased popularity of radio and small electric appliances, the spread of small wind driven power systems such as the Wincharger (owned by Zenith for a time and later by Winco) and the beautifully made Jacobs units proliferated rapidly. This equipment enabled those in rural areas to enjoy modern conveniences prior to rural electrification and to do so without running a gasoline powered generator all the time.
After the REA came through and set up the grid in these areas, many of the windmills went into the scrap pile. Partly out of convenience, and partly due to a requirement–the REA dictated that farmers must take down their windmills in order to be hooked up to the line power. This was perhaps under the guise of safety (the windmills and batteries were low voltage DC and the line current was the common 120/240v 60Hz AC that we use today……any attempt by the homeowner to connect them together without proper conversion hardware would be disastrous……..OK…that’s the “good” argument….the more sinister (and very likely) reason was to ensure a customer base. The power companies simply wanted to make sure they got a return on their investments and legislating a customer base would do just that. (an old dirty trick that sounds kinda familiar today, doesn’t it?)
So that is the very very short version of the history of wind generated electricity here prior to WWII.
After the war and the completion of rural electrification, about the only places you found windmills producing electric power was in very remote areas such as off-shore platforms, some sailboats, and remote cabins in places like Alaska. Yes, I had a Wincharger in my off-grid home. It worked very well for me.
More recently wind power has “made it big” and become much more mainstream. More efficient designs, better interconnection and load management technologies, and the realization that we NEED this as part of a well rounded of electrical infrastructure have helped the use and acceptance of wind power spread.
As you drive by a large windfarm project you may notice that they not only produce useful power but that they do so with a fairly minimal footprint on the ground. The land around the towers is typically still grazed and farmed just as it had been before. In at least one place I visited I saw a windmill tower….cattle grazing….AND an oil well pumpjack operating in the same field. Multiple generations of energy and resources in use in one place. Kinda cool really!
After having watched the construction of a windfarm in Alaska, seeing the massive windpower industry of British Columbia, and seeing the variety of large projects across the continental US, I have noticed something else: They are rather attractive kinetic art pieces as well. Watch a long row of them, their blades turning in unison–almost choreographed like a ballet of cartwheeling dancers and you might get a sense of it.
So what?
OK.
Think about what sorts of things fascinated you as a kid. The big machines, trains and planes or ships…a ticking watch….stuff that moved or did something. Things that made some sounds, even if faint sounds….maybe there were smells involved. The point is there was an appeal to the senses that drew your attention. Perhaps this kindled an interest that lead you into a specific direction in life. Maybe it inspired you to want to create something or do something great. Often modern technology is too sterile and “black box-ish”….you push a button or touch a screen and you get a reaction–but the device itself lacks any physical appeal to draw your attention beyond the function that it does and if you just saw it dormant on a shelf you might simply pass it by with little thought. In this regard, the sight of all those windmills carrying out their task of producing the power that allows you to run the computer on which you read these words has some additional value beyond the function of producing power–the visual appeal may inspire someone’s creative energy to make or do something that betters the world.