I often watch the
sailing regattas on Lake Tahoe and admire the beauty of airfoils designed to extract power from the wind.
A few weeks ago, I
saw a second cousin to those gorgeous sailboats.
I was driving
through the Mojave Desert when I overtook a slow-moving truck with a
flashing sign that said “Oversized load.”
Wow, talk about
understatement. You know those logging trucks where the cab is
connected to the rear wheels not by a truck structure but by the logs
themselves? This truck was like that, except it seemed like it was
maybe 200 feet long.
I slowed as I
moved into the left lane to go past.
What I saw was a
fantastic, beautiful, monstrous curve of white. It may have been made
of fiberglass or titanium or some other techy material. I couldn't
tell. It curved in all three dimensions and brought back hazy
memories of reading about hyperbolic paraboloids from science texts
back in college.
I thought it was
the largest – and one of the most beautiful – abstract
sculptures I'd ever seen. Then I realized what I was looking at.
It was a single
blade for a monster wind turbine.
I slowed my car,
matched speeds with the truck, and stared at this wing that was much longer than those on a 747 jet and, with its complicated multiple
curves, probably more complicated in design. It was like an America's
Cup sailboat-meets-Mars-mission technology.
Up close, it was
one of the coolest things I'd ever seen, a beautiful shape that was
designed to extract power from the wind. It was beautiful
because the the science behind its design made it that way.
It is humbling to
realize that the science of function is integral to many things of
beauty. When I look at the spectacular sails of the boats out on Lake
Tahoe, I realize that their beauty comes from a design that is all
about function.
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| WoodWind II Sailing Cruises on Tahoe |
After seeing that huge turbine blade, I can never again look at the spinning blades of wind turbines
without seeing them like sailboats. These are sails that turn. They
take the invisible wind and turn it into electricity. A wind farm
with many turbines is like a regatta with many racing boats. Instead
of producing an afternoon thrill ride on the water, the turbines
power our lights and appliances.
Beauty follows
science.
I live here in the Columbia River Gorge (Oregon), and driving east--up the river, the wind machines look like Sentenials of the Gorge! I am so happy that so many of the dry-land wheat ranchers are getting them on their ranches--as the Gorge winds gust @65 mph! (and they get $1K per wind machine each and every month!)
ReplyDeleteI love 'em! So now we have dam-power (hydro-power) and now wind power!
Yes, every time I drive by a wind farm I feel good knowing that those turbines are producing serious amounts of electricity without putting more carbon into the atmosphere. Instead of thinking they are a blight on the landscape, I see them just like a collection of sailboats on a lake.
DeleteTodd