Altamont Pass Wind Farm

Altamont Pass Wind Farm

The Altamont Pass Wind Farm is one of the earliest in the United States located in the Altamont Pass. The wind farm is composed of over 4900 relatively small wind turbines of various types, making it at one time the largest farm in the world in terms of capacity. Altamont Pass is still the largest concentration of wind turbines in the world, with a capacity of 576 megawatts (MW), producing about 125 MW on average and 1.1 terawatt-hours (TWh) yearly. [cite web
url=http://www.eoearth.org/article/Altamont_Pass,_California
title=Altamont Pass, California - Encyclopedia of Earth
publisher=www.eoearth.org
accessdate=2008-06-02
last=
first=] They were installed after the 1970s energy crisis in response to favorable tax policies for investors.

Considered largely obsolete, these numerous small turbines are being gradually replaced with much larger and more cost-effective units. The small turbines are dangerous to various raptors that hunt California Ground Squirrels in the area. 1300 raptors are killed annually. Among them are 70 golden eagles that are federally protected. In total, 4700 birds are killed annually. [ [http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/earth/4222351.html How the Deadliest Wind Farm Can Save the Birds: Green Machines] ] The larger units turn more slowly and, being elevated higher, are less hazardous to the local wildlife.

An advantage of this particular site is that under hot inland (California Central Valley) conditions a thermal low is developed that brings in cool coastal marine air through this pass, driving the turbines at a time of maximum need. Unfortunately this is not always reliable and with an inland high pressure condition the entire region can be both hot and windless. At this time additional power is provided by natural gas powered gas turbine peaker plants.

ee also

*Altamont (disambiguation)
*Tehachapi Pass Wind Farm
*San Gorgonio Pass Wind Farm
*Wind power in the United States
*Wind power in California

References

External links

* [http://www.ilr.tu-berlin.de/WKA/windfarm.html Windfarms of the World]
* [http://xahlee.org/Whirlwheel_dir/livermore.html 30 photos of Altamont Pass Wind Farm]

*Geolinks-US-buildingscale|37.732389|-121.652416


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