Wind tunnels coming to my county

[Lady Hobbs]

Sure been busy around here lately with the tourist attraction of the new wind tunnel being built. The tower that supports the blade is 140 ft high and the blade itself is 130 ft across. HUGE. The crane is brought in on 40 trucks and put together here and was the first crane on scene at "ground zero." That, in itself, is a monster. Six more of these will be going up in the county.

No one seems to know why they are being built in this area or who is paying for them. This is a very small rural area so not sure why this area was chosen but fine with me. Progress is good.

[Fishalicious]

Phew... reading the topic title I thought it was a fancy name for a tornado and was getting all worried already LOL

There are loads of those big ugly things here as well but as you say...they are progress which is always good

[Sounguru]

The Green fuzzies are all up in arms over them in California because the birds fly into them and well spinning blade and flying bird don't mix well.....

[DemonShark]

Wind tunnels confused me, I thought it was like something to test how planes do in turbulence so it took me a bit to figure it out lol.

[Evil Slimy]

The power generators are called wind farms. There's a really big one near here on the hills. It's really cool looking. I think it's been in operation for over 20 years now and it's been interesting to see fan and blade designs get replaced over the years. They had some really crazy experimental designs (eggbeaters) at one point that were recently replaced by propellers.
Here's some pictures: http://xahlee.org/Whirlwheel_dir/livermore.html

[country_boy454]

One of our local mines put up ten of these wind powered generators. Its cool to see. First one in the state this far north. They are all over southern MN as it is more flat land.

[Mustang Boy]

The Green fuzzies are all up in arms over them in California because the birds fly into them and well spinning blade and flying bird don't mix well.....

well those guys are never happy cause if they werent there they would be complaining how we arent finding other ways to get away from fossil fuels

[Lady Hobbs]

The woodpeckers in FL are constantly landing on the power poles, pecking away and getting zapped. You see them all the time laying on the ground under the poles.

[country_boy454]

The woodpeckers in FL are constantly landing on the power poles, pecking away and getting zapped. You see them all the time laying on the ground under the poles.

This reminds me of when I was younger. My parents clothesline poles are steal 2.5" pipes filled with concrete, to make them solid (and really really heavy!!). One day while relaxing on our back porch I noticed a woodpecker land on the pole and proceed to try and peck through it. All I remember hearing in between my laughter was a rapid twang twang twang twang ....... THUD. It rattled it's brain lose or something and died! I laughed so hard for so long I cried and my sides hurt. I wish I had a video camera so I could send it in to America's Funniest Animals.

[Tolley]

The power generators are called wind farms. There's a really big one near here on the hills. It's really cool looking. I think it's been in operation for over 20 years now and it's been interesting to see fan and blade designs get replaced over the years. They had some really crazy experimental designs (eggbeaters) at one point that were recently replaced by propellers.
Here's some pictures: http://xahlee.org/Whirlwheel_dir/livermore.html

Loads of them here in southwest england too! Ours looks like this though. http://www.ourworldfoundation.org.uk/turbine.jpg They really are huge when you stand next to one.