Lucky visitor to name wind Turbine A-1

(30/06/2010)

More than 45,500 people have visited Puget Sound Energy's Renewable Energy Center since its opening in 2008, with thousands coming each month during the tourist season. To celebrate the 50,000th visitor to its Renewable Energy Center near Ellensburg, Wash., Puget Sound Energy will honor the lucky individual with the opportunity to name Turbine A-1, one of the best producing wind turbines at the highest point of PSE’s Wild Horse Wind and Solar Facility, where the center is located.

The Wild Horse facility boasts the largest solar array in Washington and is one of the few places in the world where the general public can step inside the base of an operating wind-power turbine. Just two hours east of Seattle off I-90 on the way to Washington’s wine country, nearly 150 wind turbines grace the landscape of the power production facility set on 12,000 acres of rangeland. Each turbine stands more than 350 feet from the ground to the tip of a vertical blade, its blade rotor wider than the wing span of a Boeing 747. Wild Horse’s wind-generating capacity is enough to power more than 70,000 homes.

“People come to the Renewable Energy Center at Wild Horse from all over the world because of the phenomenal landscape and the technological marvel we have here,” said Paul Wiegand, senior vice president of Power Generation for PSE. “All our Wild Horse visitors discover what the future of energy looks like. And if you want a chance to name a wind turbine, be sure to visit the ‘REC’ this summer. You never know if you might be the 50,000th person to walk through the door.”

While there, visitors not only can view the center’s informative exhibits and displays, but also can see, up close, Wild Horse’s wind turbines, solar arrays, and shrub-steppe habitat, with spectacular wild-flower blooms in spring. Weather permitting, the Renewable Energy Center is open to the public from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. seven days a week from April through November.

An open house celebration revealing the Turbine A-1 name will be held at the center following the 50,000 visit.

Related categories:  Wind power