SMUD Solano Wind Project Tour - October 2013

I had the opportunity to tour the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) Solano Wind Project near Rio Vista, CA. SMUD is the local electric utility serving most of Sacramento County, including my house. The utility owns 230 MW of clean wind power that provides enough electricity to power almost 80,000 homes.

Above is a video I shot of the wind farm and one of the windmills on the tour. Each windmill is over 400 feet tall and spins much slower than those found over the Altamont and Tehachapi passes. This reduces the number of birds killed by the blades (already very low) and is much more efficient. Electricity generated by these windmills is competitive with natural gas which is the main source of electricity for California.

One benefit of wind power is that the land under the turbines can still be used for agricultural purposes. An interesting fact about modern windmills is that the blades can rotate to extract more or less power from the wind as speeds increase. That is why they always spin at a standard rate even when the winds are very high. These turbines can produce power in speeds up to 55 MPH and are already reducing the carbon emissions from our power grid.

Yes, I could not resist the obvious selfie on the tour. Even though California does not have the massive wind resources of other states, our state still leads the way in deploying wind technology and benefits from the cost stability of renewable power plants. Plus, they are a lot prettier than a dirty coal smokestack! Please enjoy the rest of my pictures below.