The wind turbine farm along I-65 in northwest Indiana

Not long ago I exchanged blog comments with someone in which I mentioned the multitude of wind turbines along I-65 in northwest Indiana. I thought I’d made some photos of them, but I couldn’t find them in my Flickr space. That would be because I didn’t upload them there. While continuing with my project to delete photographs I no longer want to keep — duplicates and failures — I came upon my photos of the wind farm. I made them while driving to Chicago in late summer of 2011.

Yes, I made these photos while I drove. I shot indiscriminately, vaguely aiming my Canon PowerShot S95 out the window while I kept my eye on the road.

Wind turbines
Wind turbines
Wind turbines
Wind turbines
Wind turbines

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Comments

18 responses to “The wind turbine farm along I-65 in northwest Indiana”

  1. brandib1977 Avatar

    These are quite good, especially for being shot on the fly!

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      Thanks! They were all at off angles because I wasn’t taking the time to make sure my camera was level. I had to straighten them all in Photoshop!

      1. brandib1977 Avatar

        Haha. Been there. Itโ€™s hard to shoot and drive!

  2. Roger Meade Avatar
    Roger Meade

    These “farms” always remind me of a cover painting from a ’50’s science fiction novel. Very otherworldly looking. There are few in the Upper Peninsula. I can think of only one. It powers an isolated Indian casino outside of Marquette. A good idea that. I’m sure it takes a lot of energy to keep all those flashing and clanging machines tempting you to lose your life’s savings.

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      I remember when this one went in. I’d never heard of a wind turbine before, let alone seen one. Then later I saw one on a truck being taken to its installation location. It was huge!

  3. Dan Cluley Avatar
    Dan Cluley

    There are a whole lot of them about an hour north of me on US-127. The first time I encountered them was after dark. Not only did I not know they were there, but the blinking red warning lights on top are all synchronized as far as you can see.

    That’s a little spooky until you figure out what you are looking at. Definitely sci-fi vibes.

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      I’ve driven through this wind farm at night, and it is kind of eerie to see the beacon lights flashing all at the same time.

  4. Ward Fogelsanger Avatar
    Ward Fogelsanger

    It takes approximately 9600 to 11200 wind turbines ( bird cuisinarts) covering 200 square miles to equal the output of one nuclear power plant… I vote for nukes.

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      I’m a fan of nukes too.

    2. Olli Thomson Avatar
      Olli Thomson

      That’s funny – those must be the world’s smallest wind turbines. The Alta onshore wind farm in California has a 1.55 GW capacity with 600 turbines. The Hornsea offshore system in the UK has 1.2 GW from 170 turbines and as of next year will have 2.6 GW from 340 turbines. Nuclear is fine in theory. In practice nuclear power plants are massive money pits into which vast quantities of taxpayer dollars are shoveled when these plants end up over time and over budget as they always do. Still, if you’re happy with your nukes well and good, You can keep those, I’ll keep the wind turbines – I don’t really like birds anyway:)

  5. Andy Umbo Avatar
    Andy Umbo

    Plus one for getting these “on the fly”, hard to do! We always call this area: The Alien Landscape”.

    When you read a lot about “nuke power”, you find out they’re tough to build “safe” when they’re built large. I’m all for small atomic plants judiciously placed around areas where they’d make an impact. You can also build a small house that is amazingly efficient, using practically no power at all…that’s the way to go! I know a guy that built a 900 square foot house out in the Wisconsin countryside, that practically never needs to turn on the heat or air conditioning! He told me his power bill in the summertime is sometimes eighteen bucks! May apartment is more!

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      Small plants sound like a good idea to me!

  6. Greg Clawson Avatar
    Greg Clawson

    Jim, good job on the wind turbines! My attempts at photographing them in Benton County along US 52 have not been as successful.

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      I had some great luck – very little traffic and some lucky aim.

  7. Doug Anderson Avatar

    The same people who fret about the effect on marine life of the temperature of cooling water discharged by nuclear plants ignore the slaughter of birds by the wind turbines.

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      I have a few cynical theories as to why. I’m trying to be less cynical.

  8. M.B. Henry Avatar

    Those are some pretty good shots for being drive bys! Nice work. It reminds me of the big windmill farm in California outside of Palm Springs.

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      Thanks! This is the only wind farm I’ve seen. I’ve seen some wind turbines kind of one off, lonely in a field here or there, too.

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