Live from Sweetwater, Texas about 300 miles from home on our first stop of a five-week road trip. It’s great to be back blogging and to have you along for a fun-filled adventure!

As you drive through Sweetwater, the fields are full of a new kind of crop – wind turbines – mile after mile after mile of them. Across Texas, where the wind always blows, farmers and ranchers are finally able to cash-in on the benefit of a breeze that never ceases.

With over 12,000 wind turbines sited in the state of Texas, it ranks number one in the US for the amount of renewable energy it produces. Soaring over 260 feet into the air (around 80 meters), a tubular steel tower supports a hub with three blades, each measuring over 100 feet in length (@ 30 meters) made from unsaturated polyester or fiber-reinforced epoxy, and a nacelle which houses the shaft, gearbox, generator and controls.

As the wind blows, the blades capture the kinetic energy and rotate, turning it into mechanical energy. This rotation turns an internal shaft connected to a gearbox which increases the speed of rotation by a factor of 100. That spins a generator and, hey presto, electrical power is produced.

In areas where cattle are raised, the animals use the shadow created by the turbine blades to stay cool in the heat of the day – as the shadow moves, so do the cattle!