Windpower Prop, Seen Close Up, Is Massive

They look so graceful when they're spinning

By Dan Smith Posted 06.17.2009 at 1:01 pm 6 Comments

Windmill Tine "Oversize Load" is an understatement via Boing Boing Gadgets

A single prop for a wind turbine has been caught in the wild by Dogmantra, a friend of the Boing Boing Gadgets blog.

We’ve covered wind power several times before, but this close-up provides context to describe the startling size of these things. Mock-ups or distant pictures of wind farms are one thing, but seeing a single gargantuan tine almost taking out highway signs is another thing entirely. These wind turbines are truly humbling in scale.

[Boing Boing Gadgets]

Previous Article: Climate Change Is Already Affecting the United States

Next Article: Geoengineering: Are Weather Machines Really the Answer?

Want to learn more about the environment, solar energy, sustainability, and more? Subscribe to Popular Science and enter to win $5,000!

6 Comments

link to this comment

LabRat

06/17/09 at 1:19 pm

If you drive on the interstate with any frequency in the midwest, these sightings are pretty commonplace on the I80/I35 corridors. Still pretty cool to see up close though. I think the one pictured is quite a bit larger than your average turbine blade though.

link to this comment

yetihehe

06/17/09 at 1:21 pm

Plus - notice how light it is. Only two axes on a trailer are enough.

link to this comment

cwinfough

from Gardner, KS

06/17/09 at 3:23 pm

You can see these nearly any give Sunday @ I-35 and US-75. Nearly every Sunday while traveling on I-35 I see trucks hauling these parked along side the highway at the truck stop that is at that junction.

link to this comment

RMORTI

06/17/09 at 8:25 pm

Wait till they start making the blades out of carbon nanotubes.

link to this comment

macro820

06/18/09 at 10:15 pm

Aren't they already carbon fiber? I live new Kansas City and see train fulls of them quite often.

link to this comment

mshawgo

08/19/09 at 2:55 pm

I live in Bloomington, IL and they built a wind farm a few miles east of town a couple years ago. They would drive right down Business 55 through the main part of town and then head east out ow town with the blades. At first I thought they were airplane wings they were so big. After see a few go through, I realized they were windmill props. They're absolutely massive and when you see them on the windmill you don't realize how big they really are.

Whoever took that photo needs to fixed his cracked windshield.