THE WINDMILLS OF

PORT BURWELL, ONTARIO

I was recently visiting my friend 'AudioBob' now living in Port Burwell, Ontario, where they are installing 66 wind-power generators. We got to see one of the units close-up, and I took these pictures. My friend stands about 6' tall, so I used him to get a perspective on the size of the parts that make up a working unit. We also saw the crane used to lift these parts into place, but unfortunately, it was getting too dark to get a good picture of its massive size. I'm hoping to correct that in another trip to the area before they complete all 66 units. The main 'tube' that supports each unit I am told is about 280' high. The 'pod' that houses the generating equipment weighs about 56 1/4 tons. It takes about an 8 mph wind to start these units generating power, and they are designed to shut down if the wind becomes stronger than about 56 mph. The generator unit is capable of producing 1.5 megawatts of electrical energy into the 'grid'. Each blade I am told, is 123' long, and are made of a 'honey-combed' plastic. There are 3 of them connected to a geared hub so that they can be rotated as required to get the best wind advantage. The hub and blades weigh about 17 tons. The base they are mounted on consists of about 300 cubic meters of reinforced concrete weighing over 1,200,000 lbs.

I have been back several more times , taking more pictures and a few video clips and a panoramic view of the area to the east of Port Burwell. We got to see one of the units that we had taken close-up pictures of back in February while still on the ground, assembled.