CLICK HERE if you are having a problem viewing the video on a mobile device
The Altamont Pass region in eastern Alameda and Contra Costa counties is home to the nation’s oldest wind farms, built on land leased from cattle ranchers.
Wind power started in California in 1981 when the Altamont wind farm in Alameda County was built as a reaction to the Arab oil embargo of the 1970s.
Currently, five wind farms operate in the Altamont Pass; under ideal conditions, they can generate 266.2 megawatts of electricity. The average wind turbine producing 2 megawatts of power can provide electricity for about 400 homes.
“Wind turbines work on a simple principle: instead of using electricity to make wind — like a fan — wind turbines use wind to make electricity. Wind turns the propeller-like blades of a turbine around a rotor, which spins a generator, which creates electricity,” according to the a U.S. Department of Energy website.
But not everyone is sold on wind power. According to the National Audubon Society, “Wind turbines kill an estimated 140,000 to 328,000 birds each year in North America, making it the most threatening form of green energy.”
Following a 2010 settlement between the Audubon Society and wind farm operators in the Altamont Pass, older turbines that use technology from the 1970s and ’80s have been removed or replaced with larger slower spinning wind turbines, which are more bird-friendly.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that 300 billion kilowatt-hours, or 7.3% of the 4.12 trillion kWh of electricity generated at utility-scale electricity generation facilities in the United States, will come from wind power in 2020.
Time-lapse video of wind turbines along the Altamont Pass
CLICK HERE if you are having a problem viewing the video on a mobile device
