Wind Farm Update

Just a short update about the wind farm that is being built near us. Much of the work since my last post has been under ground or at ground level, so from a distance it doesn't look like there has been much progress made. But it looks like almost all of the foundation bases for the windmills have been completed - the holes filled back in, the electric cables buried, and the pads ready to have the towers bolted on. Here's one of the one hundred or so that are ready to go.

For scale, that pad is about 15 feet across. Doesn't look much like a windmill yet, but it will soon. We found an indication of what's to come on one of the sites where the crane that will be used to hoist everything skyward had just been assembled. Take a look.

Now that's a BIG crane! The boom is down because that's how they assemble it.

I parked the car next to it and then stepped waaaay back to get the whole thing in the picture at once. Distance from tip to tail: 330 ft. That's longer than a football field! Here's the side view of the tracks and cab.

I took this shot because I'm always interested how much counterweight (the big blocks of steel in back) is needed for cranes this size. As you can see from the picture, this is a Manitowoc 16000 lattice boom crawler crane. According to the spec sheet, it's capable of lifting 440 tons. I noticed tag on each one of the counterweight plates that said they weighted about 18000 pounds apiece. There are 16 such plates. A simple calculation says that's a lot of weight. They put the timbers under the tracks to keep the whole mess from sinking into the cornfield.

Finally, the obligatory shot of the kids.

I can't wait to see the boom in the air. Stay tuned.