There are lots of these wind turbines in the Palm Springs area. They are unsightly yet interesting and they generate enough power for the entire Palm Springs area.
JANUARY 11, 2014.
The San Gorgonio Pass Wind Farm is located in Riverside County, California, just east of Whitewater and close to Palm Springs. Development began in the 1980’s. The project was undertaken and completed in this area because this gateway into the Coachella Valley is one of the very windiest places in the State of California. More than 3,500 units dot the landscape in the area. Increasingly popular as alternative sources of energy, wind turbine generators are a type of windmill that produces electricity by harnessing the wind. Wind turbine generators are much less harmful to the environment than burning fossil fuels, but they do require average wind speeds of at least 21 km/h (13 mph). The largest of these windmills stands 150 feet tall with blades half the legend of a football field. The compartments at the top containing the generator, hub and gearbox weigh 30,000 to 45,000 pounds.A wind turbine’s cost can range upwards to $300,000 and can produce 300 kilowatts – the amount of electricity used by a typical household in a month. Almost all of the currently installed wind electric generation capacity is in California. The high-tech megatowers are engineered in cooperation with NASA and nursed by federal and state subsidies. This wind farm on the San Gorgonio Mountain Pass in the San Bernadino Mountains contains more than 4000 separate windmills and provides enough electricity to power Palm Springs and the entire Coachella Valley.
