The Wyoming wind opened up the gates this evening… just a bit…
which reminded me I was going to show this state’s latest export.
“Wyoming Wind” by the Bar J Wranglers (which would HAVE to be the background song for this entry) gives special attention to this phenomenon. If you’ve ever driven across southern Wyoming on Interstate 80 or cut north along Interstate 25… you’ve had a taste of Wyoming’s wind.
And now, because you asked for it…
(*You* meaning an energy hungry American public)
…our way to Laramie through the Shirley Basin is dotted with these.
Back years ago, when these first went in, windmills were located out of sight of the highways… now, they are everywhere.
Many are in the process of being built… with dozens of huge holes drilled creating large gopher mounds along both sides of the highway.
White “pipe” is the windmill’s skeleton… they are HUGE, just watch them haul those “WIDE LOAD”s down the highway!
Cranes stand at the ready…
I wonder at the ranches and the grazing land now covered in windmills and power lines.
After original disturbance…
and barring maintenance…
I wonder if the pain of dealing with loud motors and aesthetics balance out the constant income (something usually rare on ranches). We’ve become so used to pumpjacks dotting the countryside, I imagine we’ll get used to these.
Medicine Bow, Wyoming should be used to it by now…
Just tall pines outside of town?
I couldn’t decide if I liked them all in rows… or scattered as natural “trees”…
I also wonder at those people willing to pay to import our energy from our wind, rather than build their own off of Cape Cod… oh, wait! I forgot. They scream NIMBY. So now… they are in Wyoming’s back yards…
It’s a tough call.
They are pretty in their own right… much like those drilling rigs that Daddy had photos of in his office. But a drilling rig disappears into a “Christmas tree” and a buried pipeline… and windmills just lead into transmission lines.
But then again.
A constant income.
Not relying on the cattle market that swings and sways.
Definitely a tough call.
Glad we don’t live in a windy area… because I’m not sure which way I’d choose.
