Wind Power in Indiana
Over the past year, I have produced an honors thesis comparing monopole and lattice towers as supporting structures for wind turbines. Specifically, I considered towers for medium-power turbines, and I performed a complete cost estimate for each tower to compare the two types. I will be presenting my work this Friday at the Honors Student Symposium and again on April 16th at the Stander Symposium. I will also be turning in my written report in a couple weeks.
We had a 3-day weekend a few days ago, and I spent it with my girlfirend, Liz, visiting a friend in Chicago. On the way up I-65, just north of Lafayette, I noticed some large tower figures in the distance to the west. Since they weren't lined up in any particular order, I knew they couldn't be power transimission towers. So we got off and headed west on a state route, eager for the possibility of seeing these large structures up close. When we got off I-65, they appeared to be just a few miles away. As we drove further west, they slowly became larger and more distinguishable. Eventually we could see the massive rotor blades turning in the wind. To give you an idea of their size, they ended up being 10 miles off the interstate rather than just a few! They were truly massive and beautiful structures. Soaring hundreds of feet into the air with blades over 100 feet in length, there was not just a few turbines but a whole wind farm of hundreds of turbines. I could only imagine how much power they were generating collectively there in the middle of Indiana farmland.
Although the towers I analyzed for my thesis were much smaller, seeing these giant structures was truly special.
Mar 4, 2009 10:24 AM
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