Driving back and forth to eastern Washington, the Vantage wind farms are a striking landmark. Dozens of wind turbines march across the hills, capturing wind energy to sell to Puget Sound Electric and other utilities.

I realize these towers are huge, much bigger than our human sense of perspective registers. But how big? The blades are each 125′ long, and are connected to turbine towers that stand 280′ off the ground. From the base of the tower to the tip of the blades is a distance of 400′.

I also wondered how much power do they really generate? Turns out it’s quite a bit. Just one turbine can generate 1.5 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 300-400 homes.

The Kittitas county wind projects alone are huge: the Wild Horse Wind & Solar Facility contains 149 turbines and can generate 273 megawatts of electricity, and the new Vantage Wind Energy Project adds another 60 turbines for an additional 90 megawatts.

Interestingly enough, the turbines start turning with wind speeds as low as 5-6 mph but shut down when winds exceed 50 mph to avoid damage.

For more information, see Puget Sound Electric’s wind energy pages.