Update April 2007: I’ve created a Google My Maps page for these locations: Wind Turbines from Space.
Messing about with Google Maps, I went looking for wind turbines. And yup, you can see ’em:
- Pickering, Ontario: Vestas V80, by Pickering Nuclear Power Station. You can see this quite clearly.
- Toronto, Ontario: maybe I’m imagining I can see the WindShare turbine.
Update, 3rd May: following my posting to awea-windnet, I got three more:
Thanks to David Wright for the California location, and Joe Duddy of RES (my old employer!) for the two from England. I’ve spent quite a bit of time on the latter two windfarms.
Update, 6 May: Found a couple more windfarms from space on googleglobetrotting.com:
- near Livermore, California.
- east of Tehachapi, California — dig the arrangement of blades in the boneyard.
Update, 20 June: Google now has worldwide coverage.
- Tarifa, Spain
- Middelgrunden, København, Denmark (offshore)
- somewhere else in Denmark — these are big turbines.
Update, 29 June:
- McBride Lake, Alberta — image taken while in construction. You can see the tower sections and the blades laid out. You can even make out the crane installing one of the northern turbines. This is a Vision Quest Windelectric project.
I just found out that the Whitwater Hill (Palm Springs) image was Space Imaging‘s Image of the Week for February 6, 2005. Great minds think alike!
and for the true wind nerd, Paul Stalker found a 50m tower he installed on the Peigan First Nation, near Brocket, AB.
Coal Clough Wind Farm looks a lot better with Google’s new imagery.
and here’s Peigan Indian Utility Corp./EPCOR Weather Dancer I Wind Turbine.
The Toronto turbine is, I’m pretty sure, not there. Toronto’s maps in Google maps are fairly old. If you look a little north east, you see a large empty, dirt area — pretty much that whole area is developed now.
I’m currently looking at a very small wind farm near Ringkøbing, at 56° 7′ 22.11″ N, 8° 13′ 48.94″ E.
Then there’s the Kortright 10kW turbine at 43° 49′ 52.58″ N, 79° 35′ 17.21″ W – probably the smallest one visible.
Siemens’ colossal factory in Brande, Denmark is visible here: 55° 57′ 20.40″ N, 9° 7′ 23.06″ E.
And just for balance, Vestas’s slightly smaller Rinkoebing works are here: 56° 5′ 19.68″ N, 8° 14′ 13.12″ E.
I’ve been to both …
some near Curaçao: 12° 14′ 15.01″ N, 69° 1′ 39.43″ W. Thanks to Margo Guda for the tip!
So, put the Playa Kanoa too.
12°10’1.92″N, 68°51’8.80″W. This makes for a total installed capacity of 12 MW, on a grid with slightly over 160 MW installed capacity and a peak load of 110 MW. Not bad for a small island that does not have grid ties to any larger grid!