Last week, I had the pleasure of heading north for a few hours to White County. It is located just north of Lafayette and in what I would call the flatest area of Indiana. Until recently, I hadn’t been in this area of Indiana for literally years and had only heard about the wind farm that was being constructed. A recent weekend trip to Chicago exposed them to my wife and I, so we made a date to go back with cameras in hand, and check the area out.
We departed I-65 and ended up driving around country roads for a couple of hours. Some of the roads were paved but by and large they were gravel surfaced, and used primarily to move farm equipment, which was a lot of what we saw going on as harvest season is in full swing.
Upon further investigation, the area we were visiting, is part of Horizon Energy’s Meadow Lake Wind Farm. There are 121 Vestas V82 1.65 MW “turbines”  as they are called with an installed total capacity of 200MW; enough energy to power 60,000 homes as the website claims. Also found on the website was this, “The electricity generated by the wind farm is sold into the regional wholesale market. The associated energy credits are used by businesses and organizations to comply with state renewable energy mandates or to voluntarily reduce the environmental impact of their operations.”
Future projects aim to add more turbines with the final count reaching 600. That is years off and for now, these pieces churn away. The obvious sustainable benefit to this is that they do not burn fossil fuels to generate energy. Another byproduct is the additional income that is provided to property owners for hosting a turbine on their property, up to $5000. White County itself earns a few jobs in the process. The Indianapolis Star hosted a good write up from a local perspective on their website some time ago that contains a few details.
As an urbanist bent on seeing more sustainable options, I really enjoyed the two hours that we spent travelling around and taking photographs. And while energy from sources such as these are still not mainstream and cost a little more than buying coal generated sources, it represents a step in the right direction. My wife intends to use her photos as part of a show she is participating in on Mass Ave’s Fall Gallery Walk early next month. So if you see them, at least you know a little bit more about them today.
While I like these photos, they simply don’t do the scale of these monsters justice. When I went past them for the first time, they were still being built and therefore weren’t moving. Just looking at them gave me a slightly panicky feeling, I’m not sure why. I really recommend checking them out in real life.
It is an impressive site. I was just through there a couple of weeks ago. I’ve read where windfarms have capacity issues – in that the blades have to have a governor on them so they don’t spin too fast. Hopefully technology eventually lets them harness all the wind instead of just part of it.
While not a fan of govt intervention, I’d love to see our cities/states prohibit HOAs from prohibiting homeowners from installing solar panels. (Gov Mitch put them in their place with political signage this year.) HOAs are an evil form of high-tax govt run by unelected officials, and they infringe on our rights. I’d have panels on my roof in a heartbeat if I wasn’t prohibited from doing so.
Andy – If you’re like me, you were panicked because you knew you should have had your eyes on the 70mph road but couldn’t keep your eyes off the gigantic turbines!
These pictures are gorgeous. Kudos to whoever did them.
I took these pictures Andrew. They are straight off the memory card with no post processing.
My wife’s photographs turned out even better than mine. If you get out for first friday, hers will be hanging at the Mass Ave Wine Shoppe. 🙂
Britt and I just marveled at those on our way to Chicago a couple weekends ago. What struck me dumb with awe even more than seeing them in the day was passing through the region on I-65 at night–hundreds of red blinking lights, all in rows, all in unison.
Beautiful Clean picture perfect Energy!
How loud were they? In my mind that might be the only thing people could possibly complain about.
Beside all the responsible/practical energy/environmental benefits, these massive “sculptures” add so much to the landscape. Something to look forward to seeing as travelers drive too and from Chi-town!
I have heard people complain about the noise of these and it was something that I really made note of. We had to get pretty close to be able to hear them, and they sounded more like a jet flying far overhead than the low hum that I have heard people complain about. Obviously since I dont live close enough I cant complain, but we really did have to stop and listen for them to even notice the noise.
In the middle of a cornfield? Harmless…,
Is there any kind of visitors center? I recently saw the Timber Road project in Van Wert OH and I was in awe of the size and number of turbines there. This location is a bit closer to me, so I’d love to visit and just look around when I don’t have another place to go.
my family owns a farm SW of Lebanon,in and we are interested in putting up a wind farm!!! there is a severe wind tunnel threw our farm.please call me and let me no where to begin!!!???
forgot to give u my # 765-481-9377