Tilting at Windmills

There has been a lot of media coverage recently about wind power. But I find that few people have ever seen a commercial scale wind turbine up close. We were on our way to Weston, WV to attend the WV Beekeepers Association meeting last week and we passed the wind turbine facility located on Backbone Mountain just below Thomas, WV. Here are a few pictures just to give you the idea and scale of these turbines. Especially note the one where I am standing near the base. Since I'm 6 feet tall, you can just imagine the overall height of the turbine. We belong to the WV Highlands Conservancy (www.wvhighlands.org) and there have been a lot or articles about these wind turbines. There are more wind farms proposed throughout WV and surrounding states. There is one under construction near Mt Storm, WV which is about 1 hour west of Romney, WV. There is a bit of noise from the turbines. Kind of a low hum and you can hear the "whoosing" of the air off the turbine blades. But at a distance of a couple hundred yards, there is no perceptible noise. This wind facility near Thomas, WV has turned into quite the attraction as there were cars pulled of the road snapping pictures. Of course, it was also a beautiful October day with good views. A very impressive piece of engineering.