Elk Valley Wind Project

Wind Tour in La Grande, OR 8.22.08

Elkhorn Valley Wind Farm - Tour Guide: Ryan Dela

Owned by Horizon Wind, which is the 4^th largest wind producer in the US, they are one of the only large scale operators that focuses employment local to the wind farm location. The wind turbines, on the other hand, are a product of many countries. The blades are built in Austrailia, the towers in Vietnam, the cells in Spain and the controllers and hubs in Denmark.

The production of wind equipment cannot keep up with the demand at present, so we are shipping equipment half way across the world to shift to a renewable energy economy. If you ask me, we need to start producing wind equipment in the US. Some states that have already jumped on the band wagon in wind turbine component production are Iowa, Pennsylvania, and North Dakota.

The top blade speed of the turbines at the Elk Valley Ranch is 150 mph, so if you were sitting on the end of a blade, that is how fast you would be zooming in circles. The wind turbines are built to withstand 300mph winds and have an 8-47 mph range of operation.

All 32 people on the tour with Ryan arrived on the big green bus and were able to go inside the base of on of the giant wind turbines. There was a little girl with us conveniently named Windy who spent much of the tour munching on freshly picked apricots. All present learned a lot about the local energy project, a successful day of wind education in La Grande, OR.