I was driving on Clinton St in Ithaca the other day and was about to come up onto Route 13 intersection when I saw it. An enormous 18 (or more?) wheeler hauling some cargo. But this wasn’t your average cargo. This was cargo of epic proportions. Traffic was stopped from all four sides as it began to turn. I watched in awe as its trailer came into view, as it just kept coming. “When is this thing ever going to stop? And what in the world is that thing it is hauling!” Yes I was in the car alone and yes I may or may not have spoken to myself, but I mean this thing was huge!
Long, cylindrical, white, pointed-ish at the end. And did I mentioned enormous! After a few minutes of waiting for this to leave the intersection, I drove down 13 wondering how I could not recognize it. Then it hit me. These were blades of a wind turbine. Naturally, my reaction was sheer excitement. Where was it going?! What company was shipping these? Is that actually the size of a turbine blade?! I have yet to find out where it was going, but I did a little research about the wind turbine industry and wind turbine usage surrounding the Ithaca area and here’s what I found….
New York has three well-known wind farms. The largest seems to be Maple Ridge Wind Farm, built by Horizon Wind Energy. The farm itself is about 75 miles north of Syracuse, and has about 140 turbines that pump energy into the NYS energy grid. The one I’m most interested in though is Cohocton Wind Farm in Steuben County, by First Wind. Why so interested? Well, this one is only about an hour and 45 minutes from Ithaca and judging from their website look to know their stuff! Decent distance if you want to go and check it out. The farm has about 50 wind turbines, smaller than Maple Ridge, but still pumping o-so-clean energy into our NYS grid. Looks like I have next weekend plans already!
Rest of the Wind Farms I was able to find that are up and running in NYS:
Altona Windpark (Noble Energy)
Chateaugay Windpark (Noble Energy)
Clinton Windpark (Noble Energy)
Ellenburg Windpark (Noble Energy)
Bliss Windpark (Noble Energy) – LOVE THE NAME!
Wethersfield Windpark (Noble Energy)
Fenner Windpower Project (Canastota Wind)
And I am still on the hunt for more!
