Matt BlazeWind Turbines, near Tracy, CA, 2010.
All the pixels, none of the wind, at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/4491948497
This was captured near the Tesla substation (no relation to the car company) near Altamont Pass with a DSLR and a 400mm lens, compressing the turbines in a way that made them resemble a histogram.
There's a *lot* of power being generated in those hills. There was an audible hum in the air and vibrations could be felt in the ground. In some spots, the camera rebooted from induced currents.
Infrastructure like this is easy to ignore, but has an accidental beauty that I think is worth examining.
The scale of these wind farms is beyond what we're equipped to process in day-to-day human experience. They conquer the landscape in ways we can't fully comprehend even when they're in front of us. In a sense, they're abstract sculptures of themselves, mostly visible in fleeting glances from interstate highways or airplane windows.
Infrastructure is heroic.
JakobT@mattblaze Nice photo 😁👍. However, as impressive as they are, these turbines are tiny. Looks like 250 kWatt turbines from the 1980-ties. Currently 15-20 MWatt turbines, I.e. almost 100 times as powerful, are put in operation in offshore wind farms. These turbines have 150 m high towers, 115m long wings, meaning that they reach almost 300 m (must be close to 1000 feet) from the sea surface. Below from the Thor wind farm in Danish North Sea, just connected to grid.
Mitch@jakobtougaard @mattblaze let's see Paul Allen's turbines