IGERT Trip to Wyoming: Day 8
Day 8-Wednesday- Wind Farm
The final academic day of the trip was spent with a morning trip to the wind farm of PacificCorp, which actually rests on a reclaimed coal mine (14,000 acres). Everyone in the group was surprised by this fact. The 158 1.5MW turbines generate enough energy to power Casper, WY. Interesting tidbits about the wind farm is one turbine cost 1.8Million $ to build and the wind turbines kill very low amount of birds. However, due to the variable nature of wind, turbines cannot be the main source of energy unless energy storage drastically improves.
