Wind Catchers

Elk River Wind Project – Butler County, Kansas

South of Beaumont, these propeller-headed towers dominate the landscape. One hundred generators transform prairie wind into 150 million watts of electrical power, about what it takes to power 42,000 homes. These huge towers show on a distant horizon, and they’re so large, 390 feet tall, that it’s hard to to get a sense of how far away, or near they are. A brochure says the turbine weighs “235 tons – 60 tons more than a blue whale”. That gives a sense scale we can relate to in the prairie. 🙂

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