High Lonesome Wind Ranch

USA / New Mexico / Willard / High Lonesome Wind Ranch Access Road
 wind farm  Add category
 Upload a photo

High Lonesome Wind Ranch/Farm is located about 7-12 miles SSE of Willard, and 55 miles southeast'ish of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Commissioned in 2009, it consists of 40 Clipper Liberty C96 (2.5MW) wind turbines with a combined nominal capacity of 100 MW.

www.nexteraenergyresources.com/pdf_redesign/high_loneso...
-------------------

www.newmexicocare.org/1pages/highlonesome.html :
The turbines in this wind ranch are made with blades tat are 155' long, and had to be delivered by special truck because they were too long to be delivered on a train. (Needs wider turning radius, unobstructed curves, etc. because they would stretch across a few train cars.) The blades were shipped from Brazil.
Each tower is 425' to the tip of the blade in its upright position, 270' from the ground to the center of the hub. (see below, left)
The tower sections were brought in by truck and hoisted into place with two cranes. The bolts at the base of the tower are 11 feet long (down into the concrete), about 8 inches apart the entire circumference of the tower.

270 people were hired for construction. Different types of people arrived for different phases of construction. 4 or 5 locals were hired. For employees, they primarily need accomplished electricians. The community colleges are doing a better job of preparing people for this kind of work than the four-year universities.

Each turbine has a base that is made of reinforced concrete. They are 27' deep and 58' wide octagons, composed of 380 cubic yards of concrete per turbine (40 trucks, 1.4 million pounds, each).

As wind farms go, this one is not particularly large with only 40 turbines. This wind farm produces 100 megawatts of energy or enough to meet the needs of 24,000 homes.
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   34°27'59"N   105°57'43"W
This article was last modified 7 years ago