Wind Power

In the past few years, Texas has become a "power seat" for the wind generated power industry.  The windmills in the photo above are just outside Dalhart, which we happened to be passing through right at sunset.  After dark, all you can see are the individual little blinking lights that are on each tower. As we traveled down the road toward New Mexico, it looked like we were passing fields full of fireflies.  It's very dark out there, and those little blinking lights are just everywhere.  Of course, during the day, you can see them all turning.  One thing that surprized me is that they turn much slower than I expected.  

I have noticed many trucks on Texas Interstate Highways carrying the individual turbine blades.  They are much larger than they look after installation way up there in the air.  One blade fills a really long 18-wheeler flatbed trailer.  I read recently that wind turbines in the western half of Texas supply up to 8% of the state's electrical power now.   I have also noticed many of these windmills in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Colorado.