San Gorgonio Pass wind farm
San Gorgonio Pass wind farm | |
---|---|
Country | United States |
Location | Riverside County, California |
Coordinates | 33°54′N 116°35′W / 33.900°N 116.583°W |
Status | Operational |
Construction began | 1980s |
Wind farm | |
Type | Onshore |
Hub height | 160 ft (49 m) (max) |
Power generation | |
Units operational | 802 |
MW | |
External links | |
Commons | Related media on Commons |
] |
The San Gorgonio Pass wind farm is a
Development of the wind farm began in the 1980s. It is one of three major wind farms in California, along with those at Altamont and the Tehachapi passes.
Utilities
As of June 2023, the farm consists of 802 wind turbines with a total rated capacity of 647 MW, built as part of 27 projects.
History and governance
Drew R. Oliver, president of the Oliver Electric Power Corporation, was the earliest to promote the idea of generating electricity from wind in the San Gorgonio Pass area. In 1926 Oliver, in collaboration with electrician W. Sperry Knighton, built a wind turbine near Whitewater. The original device used a generator Oliver had salvaged from an old roller coaster at Seal Beach, California. Oliver and Sperry fitted the generator with aluminum propellers, and placed a large funnel on the front to concentrate the wind's power. They set the entire device on a circular rail that allowed it to be pivoted to face prevailing winds[a]. The powerful wind quickly burned out the 25,000 watt unit, but a larger unit was obtained from the Pacific Electric substation in Los Angeles. After the two worked out other mechanical issues, Oliver set out to raise funds to expand the enterprise, with the vision of powering all of nearby Palm Springs. Oliver incorporated the Oliver Electric Power Corporation in Reno, Nevada, began selling stock in the company, but quickly ran afoul of newly enacted California Corporate Security Laws. Oliver was jailed for a short time, then placed on two years probation, but his plans proceeded no further. The device he had built near Whitewater became a landmark and curiosity until it was taken down and sold for scrap in 1942.[5][4]
Southern California Edison opened its Wind Energy Center eight miles northwest of Palm Springs in 1980 near its Devers substation, installing two wind turbine generators for testing.[6] One of these was the SWT-3 horizontal axis wind turbine generator designed by Charles Schachle and produced by the Bendix Corporation. It featured three 82.5-foot blades mounted on a rotor standing 110 feet above the ground.[7] The SWT-3 never achieved its rated power production due to losses in its hydraulic drive, limiting electric output to 1.1 MW.[8][9] The second turbine tested at the Edison site was a 500-kilowatt vertical axis wind turbine generator produced by Alcoa.[8] The Alcoa unit self-destructed just two weeks after installation in 1981 on the eve of the first American Wind Energy Conference in Palm Springs.[10]
In 1982 wind energy development in the San Gorgonio Pass area was formally studied, and the results published in the San Gorgonio Wind Resource Study EIR (1982), a joint environmental document prepared for the
A 2008 proposal[12] details an upgrade to the facilities to begin construction by September 2011. The proposed project would replace the 460 existing wind turbines with 30 new turbines in two phases. Phase 1 would remove approximately 74 non-operational turbines and install up to fifteen new 1.5 MW GE SLE wind turbines. Phase 2 would remove approximately 384 Vestas V15 65kW turbines and install an additional fifteen 1.5 MW GE SLE wind turbines. The proposed project would therefore comprise a total of 30 wind turbines, each 330 feet tall.
Further information
- In 1998 Huell Howser Productions, in association with KCET/Los Angeles, featured the windfarms in California's Gold; the 30 minute program is available on VHS.[13] A second Howser/California's Gold program on the wind farms was produced in 2010.[14]
See also
- Wind power in California
- Wind power in the United States
- List of onshore wind farms
- The Passage – a novel by Justin Cronin which features the wind farm
References
Footnotes
Citations
- ^ a b Hoen, B.D., Diffendorfer, J.E., Rand, J.T., Kramer, L.A., Garrity, C.P., and Hunt, H.E., 2018, United States Wind Turbine Database v6.1 (November 28, 2023): U.S. Geological Survey, American Clean Power Association, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/F7TX3DN0.
- ^ Hoen, B.D., Diffendorfer, J.E., Rand, J.T., Kramer, L.A., Garrity, C.P., and Hunt, H.E., 2018, United States Wind Turbine Database v5.0 (April 27, 2022): U.S. Geological Survey, American Clean Power Association, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/F7TX3DN0.
- ^ a b Hoffman, Dick (March 18, 1956). "Beaumont Woman Finds Scarce Photos of Machine That was to Harness Wind". Riverside, California. Riverside Daily Press. p. 13.
- ^ Hinman, Jr, Ralph (January 13, 1974). "Saga of 'The Wind Machine Man'". Vol. 22, no. 25. Long Beach, California. Independent Press Telegram. p. B1.
- ^ "California's first Wind Energy Center was dedicated Tuesday eight..." UPI. Retrieved 2022-06-05.
- Bibcode:1982lhaw.rept..575R.
- ^ Bibcode:1982lhaw.rept..727W.
- ^ Sheets, Jeff (2020-12-20). "Evolution - Wind Energy". Free Energy Planet. Retrieved 2022-06-05.
- ^ "WIND-WORKS: Alcoa". www.wind-works.org. Retrieved 2022-06-05.
- ^ "San Gorgonio Pass Wind Energy Policy Area" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2008-11-23. Retrieved 2009-11-28.
- ^ U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT DOI-BLM-CA-060-0007-0057-EA Archived 2012-09-16 at the Wayback Machine
- OCLC 747281801