In the Wind

The Colorado Green Project is a sight to behold -- even when most of its turbines are not cranking due to (unusually) light winds. Located about twenty miles south of Lamar, Colorado (and U.S. 50), I couldn't resist the opportunity to make a slight detour to take a look.

Completed in 2003, the Project includes 108 General Electric 1.5 MW wind turbines -- among the largest assembled. It's jointly owned by PPM Energy, Inc., and Shell WindEnergy, Inc.

The turbines are arrayed over 11,000 acres -- also used as a cattle ranch by the Emick family. According to information from Colorado Green, the actual footprint of all the big turbines uses just 2 percent of the land area, allowing plenty of room for ranching.

There's also quite a collection of old windmills located on-site, making for quite a contrast with today's towering turbines. Here's a photo of just one of them, with the new turbnine in the background.