My Head Is In The clouds!! Literally!!!!
 

Remember how I said I was gonna work on Wind Generators when I finished school? Well, I'm not waiting that long!! I started working for PGE on the Biglow Wind Farm in Wasco, Oregon last week!! Whoo Hoo!! I am so jazzed!!

Height ~ 396 feet to blade tip, 253 feet to center of hub
Weight ~ 246 tons
Blade diameter ~ 269 feet
Blade tip speed ~ 130 mph
Blade rotation ~ 14 rpm
Operational speed~

• Rotor blades start at a wind speed of 7 mph
• Power produced at a wind speed of 9 mph
• Maximum rated power (1.65 megawatts) reached at wind speeds of 27 mph and greater
• High-wind shutdown initiated when average speed reaches 55 mph for more than one minute

Here's a pic for size!! Notice the pick-up at the base and the black dot on the tower is an eight-foot door!!

https://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f...s/Thisone2.jpg

This is just a nice pic of a bunch of them together!!

https://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f...s/sheD0095.jpg

That look like fun! I wish I had one in my back yard...

We have 2 of those on located on a south 1/4 section of the family farm at Gull Lake Saskatchewan.

Bottom of page.

http://www.saskschools.ca/~gregory/sask/windpower.html


I was simply amazed as I drove up to one.

So you have a cool job in lofty places, does this mean you are too good for us FTEers?

Looks like fun, but I am sure it is some real work.
It is good to be a part of a renewable power operation.

There are/will be 76 towers on this farm as some of them are still going up!! And no matter where I work I will never be too good for the FTE crowd!! Ha! Ha! Ha!!!

Climbing them is kicking my butt!! I'm not 20 anymore,, heck, I'm not even 30!! Ha! Ha!

There is something majestic about the way the blades sweep around, when you see them from the road. At night it can be suprising to suddenly see a windblade swoop past what you thought was just a utility tower off in a field.

Those things were a great idea!

how does one of those get installed?

i think if i am that high above the ground that rotor needs to be turned up and have a tail rotor and then throw a turbine in there and you have a helicopter.

Yeah - but the difference between the two is that if the transmission springs a leak you can always take the stairs...
(He observes)

i bet there isnt one of use that could aford one like she's workin on,ive heard they into millions to buy and install one

I bet your right wizzard. Those things are huge & very expensive. I'd be happy with half of my roof as a solar panel.
Congrats on the job Bunny.

With really BIG cranes!!! They build the foundation, install the computer equipment, set the four tower pieces, place the nacelle on top (the generator and housing), assemble the blades and the hub on the ground and "fly" it to the nacelle.

Setting the tower~

https://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f...kos/photo7.jpg

Flying the hub~

https://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f...s/0d91b1d1.jpg


https://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f...deposition.jpg

I bet that Rigger on top of the nacelle is making a fortune...

Yeah, he gets between $60.00-$80.00 an hour, depending on the company! Not bad wages!! We get a little over half that to inspect them afterwards.

There's a company in Montana that wants to build a bunch of them, east of the mountains...but the enviro-nazis say "No, they'll detract from the pretty scenery". So, now the company is looking to build elsewhere. Oh..they might build a few "token" towers here, but even that's not completely likely.

Makes ya wonder when people gonna get their poop back in one sack, don't it?

Congrats on your new job. I'm envious. Wish to heck I could do anything, like I did when I was younger, but that isn't the way it is anymore. Sigh.

Wow Liz, Your only about 30 miles west of my ranch! They have put up 140+ around me. It's really neat at night with all the blinking red lights..........


There getting ready to put up another 60 this spring. I was talking to one of the bosses and he said they have plans to have over 10,000 within the next 10 years in the Columbia Gorge. Most of the power is going to California tho.

Those ones in Sask I mentioned earlier where $1.2 Million each.

Calgary's LRT (Light Rail Transit) system runs on green power developed from the turbines in the Fort Mcleod are.

http://www.re-energy.ca/ridethewind/backgrounder.shtml

http://www.canhydro.com/projects/cowleyridgewind/docs/CHD_SAWindPlantsBrochure(final).pdf

Yes, I am!! Arlington is just a hop, skip and jump over the hill!! I helped put in the toxic waste dump back in '88 when I was still driving belly-dump. I love the lights too, when I'm driving in at 5:00 in the morning, down highway 97, I can see them blinking in the distance. It is so cool!!

Yeah, and someone has to build them and maintain them, and that's where I come in!! I don't care who buys the power, just so I have a cool, good paying job!!

These are $3.4 million each... times 76... $260 million project!! Wow!!

There's a bunch of wind farms here in California.

The closest one around here is in the Altamont Pass area.

They've been here since the seventies; a bit outdated, but are being replaced
by the larger and more cost effect units.

http://xahlee.org/Whirlwheel_dir/livermore.html

there is a place around here that makes smaller ones for farm an country use. If I didn't live in a place with lots of buildings,I would sure check out the cost to buy and get one installed!!

Wow, those are awesome and an awesome job to have, good for you. I would rather see those sitting in our fields rather than coal or nuclear stacks anyday..


I get the part of the rotating wind blade generating electricity probaly thru a rotor/ armature assembly. But I do not see any facilities to where they get the individual turbines power controlled/converted /regulated ? ...

How do they get the accumalated turbines power to the substations /transmission lines as usable power?

The power, which is generated in the nacelle, comes down the tower through huge transmission lines and is routed to an onsite substation where it is then added to the main lines. All the feeder lines that lead to the substations are buried to keep it looking neat and tidy.

Yeah, and a guy by the name of Don Quixote keeps showing up :-X10

And here I thought you had your head in the clouds because I finally put my picture in the "Do you dare post a picture" thread,,,, :-X04

when i was in germany last spring, i couldnt help notice all these windfarms everywhere. they were all over the place, just awesome looking. it seemed as every town had a few or many that were shared amongst towns. i dint seem to think it distracted from the views. i also noticed that they had very few lines strung above ground, it was all most all underground. then i came home to notice the differences. all of our powerlines are above ground. well i would say those darn lines and towers do so much more to detract from a great view than those mills ever did. there is very little land in this country that doesnt have powerlines ruining a view. ok just my.02 worth of rant. Bunny glad to hear you scored an awesome paying job, now be careful, so we dont lose ya. where is your son, he was gonna be off fightin a fire for a few weeks, and i havent seen him since, that was a couple of months ago. Dan

Environmental Power industries are a logical extension of the "Green Fuel" thing I noticed a few years back, (Oh by the way - I'M probably the clown responsible for the Biodiesel forum being added to FTE) so in theory electric vehicle technology is overdue for new types of storage cells that can go farther and produce better power per pound than what we've had so far.

Cast iron motors with a ton of heavy copper windings are something that has been a drawback, as well as lead-acid batteries, both of which have to be moved somehow.

I'd bet there are advances in electric motors and batteries that will be revealed soon. There is that much interest in it, someone must be working in those areas of research. It seems to me some kind of results are long overdue


GOBLIN is still alive! It just isn't spoken of

Thanks Dan!! I'm really glad too!! Nick is actually downstairs loading furniture in his pick-up and headed back to school. He hasn't been online yet becasue he has a house this year, and his Internet hasn't been hooked up yet!! Have no fear,, he'll be along!!

I use to work on those, I was a millwright, and had to change out the studs for the back half of the nacelle, and I forget the other part name, but pretty much where the nacelle bolts onto the top of the tower. It was not fun to climb, I worked for a subsidy of GE. great pay, nice view up top, but hated working in windy conditions. The swaying would make you feel sick . oh and we also had to retorque the hub, while we where up their. I worked in Minnesota, and northern Iowa. pretty interesting on how they work.

Are you talking about the yaw motor and gears? And now they have sway dampeners. They work really well too!!

You are really into this!

And what you've posted is fascinating...

Ha! Ha!! Yes, I am totally into this!! I find it very interesting, not to mention the good pay!! And I am lucky enough to have the place in my own backyard!!

As a matter of fact Wolf, with your electrical background, I bet you wouldn't have trouble getting on board if you had the gumption to do so. They don't have trouble getting people to work the mecahnics, but getting people who can understand a set of schematics is hard for them. GE came in and passed out applications just last week, and offered paid training in New York, plus per diem, to anybody who was willing to go, regardless of previous experience. They are so desperate for people, it's almost sad!!

I know youre a lady but you got a pair bigger than mine.

I hate heights, I get scared on scaffolding. I dunno how you do it.

I think that the windmills are a positive contribution to the scenery.

Lizzie, don't be getting any ideas about taking a ride on one of those blades!

No, but i wouldn't mind repelling down the tower!!! Whoo Hoo!! What a rush that has got to be!!

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f15/ekokos/14930.jpg

how do the dampers work than and where are they located at? It was in 2003, when I worked on them they could build them including setting up and ready to generate for a cost of 1.5million each. I enjoyed working on them, but not in winter. I still have photos somewhere. It had something like a 72:1 gear ratio from the blade to the generator. The nacelle reminded me of the old aluminum travel trailers when it was sitting on the ground.

there is a wind ranch in ca. and I drive past them everyday on my commute , you have to see them up close to appreciate how big they really are.
I'm an electrician too but have not gotten the chance to work on them - yet.

That GE Company willing to take a 55 year old, with a bad back and gimpy legs, arms and hands & train me to read them? I'm willing to learn to read schematics. But if more than basic math is involved, I'm not qualified. Sigh. I'd sure love to have a job rather than fight for social security. I know all I could accomplish would be maybe climing one tower per day.. lol..and it'd probably take quite a while to do that!

You are so very fortunate. I think those things just even LOOK cool.

If we had ten of those located in the Las Vegas Valley, it would do two great things.

One get rid of about 100,000 scumbags. And then, generate power for people who work and pay for their livings! Right on! I like this Idea.

They amount to a weighted pendulum and are near the top. When the towers begin to sway, the weights counteract, much like a gyro.