A vivid example of how wind technology has advanced over the years is the repowering of the world’s first wind farm in Altamont Pass, California – Tehachapi Pass Wind Farm. The first phase is now complete.
"The old turbines would shut down if the winds got too strong, and then they’d fall down and hit the wires and start grass fires. These spin slower than the old ones, and they are very quiet," John Jackson, a local cattle rancher, told San Jose Mercury News.
First developed in the 1970s, on 50,000 acres leased from cattle ranchers, it looks quite different today. Easily visible from the road, Altamont has been many peoples’ first view of a wind farm.
The new, more condensed lay out:
In 2010, an agreement was negotiated between environmental groups, the state, and NextEra to update the outdated, inefficient turbines which were killing as many as 4300 birds a year, a third of which were protected raptors such as golden eagles. The Altamont Pass lies on a major migratory route and is an important breeding area.
Under the agreement, NextEra will replace 2,400 turbines and shut down all the old ones by 2015. Originally, there were 4000 turbines, which are now 30 years old. The company also agreed to erect new turbines in less environmentally sensitive locations.
Those 2400 turbines are being replaced with just 100 huge state-of-the-art turbines, each 430-feet tall, higher than a redwood. Each 2.3 megawatt wind turbine, built by Siemens, produces power for about 650 homes.
Also, at least six miles of transmission lines and eight miles of road are being removed, returning the land to a more natural state.
At the event celebrating the end of the first phase, talk was about the expiring the federal production tax credit for utility-scale wind, saying "future projects are already grinding to a halt because the credit is crucial to making wind power cost-competitive with such energy sources as solar and natural gas," says Mercury News.
"If the PTC isn’t extended you’ll see very little, if any, development in 2013. That is a fact," Steve Stengel, director of communications for NextEra, told Mercury News.
California now gets about 5% of its electricity from wind, according to the California Wind Energy Association.
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