There are lots of windmills around here, so Denny wanted to take a tour. People had told us that they heard it was a very interesting, but nobody had gone on one. They are missing out. It was very informative. There are 41 wind farms around here, the first started in the early 80's. There are 5 generations of windmills, most only last 20-30 years. In Palm Springs they can only be 300' tall. In other parts of the US and the world there is no height restriction. Even tho this is the perfect area to have them because of all the wind, Palm Springs fought it, thought they would be too ugly ad noisy. They cost about 2 million to build and it takes 8-9 years to return a profit. The other tour we took had different statistics, but I believe the windmill tour has the correct facts. They are noisy, but they usually are built away from the population. Also with new technology, they are alot quieter.
Windmills as far as you can see
The building behind the wings is about the size of our 5th wheel (35'x12'x12') and holds 20 tons of equipment. The only difference is our RV is only 8' tall, but it is 12' wide when the slides are out.
I'm sure you all remember Enron. The windmills above were discontinued before 1980. Because these were cheaper to build, Enron greased a few palms and built these in the early 80's. MONEY TALKS!
The ones on the left of the picture were built in the early 80's. As they build new ones, the older ones are taken down.
These power lines are going to areas all over Southern California and Las Vegas to supply electricity. The electricity from the windmills goes underground to a substation. These lines carry it out.
The blue area in front of the windmills are solar panels. It looks like a lake. They are starting to put some in to use when there is no wind. Of course, that doesn't happen often. It is windy 70% of the time. The windmill people don't like solar because it takes up much more of a footprint on the ground than windmills and produces not even half the electricity. The footprint of each windmill is very, very small. Also, wherever there are solar panels on the ground, no wildlife will go there. Even if they are taken out, it is barren of wildlife. Not sure why.
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