Todd and I left San Francisco with one thing on our minds: “Vegas, baby!” But as we drove the long, hot, dry (did I mention long?) roads to Nevada, we got distracted by something shiny! wind turbines on a hill in the distance. So we tore off onto a service road and headed up the hill.
Turns out we were looking at the Altamont wind turbine farm, one of the oldest in the country. Located in the Diablo Range of San Joaquin Valley, Altamont has about 4,800 small turbines and a total capacity of 576 megawatts. Just to put that in perspective, one megawatt will serve 750-1,000 homes. Pretty impressive!
We took a shot of us (and our Prius), just to prove we were there:
Then, about five hours later, we passed another wind farm — this one much more densely populated with turbines of varying sizes, including some giants! Below, a few images we took roadside:
