Of course, hydro hasn't been the only driver of juice through our wires for some time. Coal plants, some nuclear, natural gas, have been supplementing our growing power appetite in western Washington. But if you keep looking you see even newer power on the horizon. Literally.
I'd been noticing it growing for a while within view of I-90 near the Columbia River crossing at Vanatage - windmills. Wind turbines to be more precise. Three bladed, light gray to white, so large they don't seem to be moving very fast.
I got a tour today from Puget Sound Energy's V.P. for Power Generation, Paul Wiegand.
While they only turn at a maximum rotation of 16 revolutions per minute, the tips of those 129-foot-long blades are actually moving at 150 miles per hour. From the base of each tower to the tip of a blade at its apex, it's 351 feet.
There are 127 towers like this that are part of the Wild Horse Wind Farm, east of Ellensburg. They're designed to catch the wind and power our homes. The turbines operate pretty much on their own. Nearly everything other than maintenance is automatic, from how the wind turbine is aimed into the wind to the pitch of the propellers to maximize the amount of rotational force or torque which drives the generator. The stronger the wind, the more power is available, and while the rotation never exceeds 16 revolutions per minute, the force is enough to flex the ends of the blades several feet when things are cooking.
In the midst of all this is PSE's newest renewable experiment, a solar array which can power 300 homes. Solar cells have been on the roofs of homes and in other applications for a long time, but PSE wants to see if they can use it on an industrial scale practical for a utility in our part of the world. The utility claims it's the largest in the Northwest. It could grow into something more. A lot more.
What is clear is that the once experimental wind turbine is being used on an industrial scale here and now. But there are no smokestacks, no cooling towers, no large slabs of concrete blocking a river. It's actually a strangely beautiful sight. You could even call it artistic.
Whether large static solar arrays end up as attractive remains to be seen. I guess that depends on how many we end up getting.
I've read that some folks down in southeastern Washington have grown tired of looking at their wind turbines, and wish they could see their distant ridgelines like they once did. I can understand that.
But like a smorgasbord, that Swedish buffet that seems to contain an endless variety of things to eat, it seems likely more and more of our power will be coming from a wider variety of places and from a wider variety of sources.