10-4 Magazine / February 2025 69 does to set the tower, as they can set 2-3 towers in the span of a day. It takes special coordination to get the pieces to the site as they are needed. To help facilitate this process, there are storage locations across the country where components can be held until they are needed at the job site. Roads have to be built for trucks to be able to access each tower site, and when the job is done, the site has to be restored (but they still have to be able to access each tower for maintenance when it needs to be done). After a wind farm is operational, I was surprised to learn that there are frequent occurrences of lightning strikes and mechanical issues with the tower’s huge generators. Lightning can damage blades, and if a generator can’t be fixed, it needs to be replaced. Most companies will wait until there are several towers that need this kind of work done to them before they send in a crew to take care of them all at once. The average life of a tower is 20-25 years, but technology is forging ahead in this area, too. Mike was telling us about a farm that was old, and they dismantled 66 towers, replacing them with just 13 newer towers, for the same energy output. There are anywhere from 80-120 individual turbines in an average wind farm, depending on the area, but some farms are smaller. They are all equipped with a flashing red light on top to warn air traffic at night. I’m sure most of us have driven by a wind farm at night and seen the blinking light show these towers put on – it’s almost like a small city with all the buildings being the same height. I can remember years ago the wind farms on the mountainside of Tehachapi east of Bakersfield, CA, as well as the one along I-10 near Palm Springs, CA. The wind is plentiful in these places, and they were the “pioneer” farms for the ones we see today. Since then, these farms have been updated with newer (and larger) turbines, and they continue to be useful.
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