Teaching Energy Workshop: Field Trip Photo Gallery

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Information about this field trip

Photos by Karin Kirk

A row of wind turbines at the Seven Mile Hill wind farm near Medicine Bow, WY.
This wind farm has 73, 1.5 MW turbines, manufactured by GE.
Turbine construction is complete, but some land reclamation work still remains to be done.

Group photo of field trip participants.
It was hard to stop taking pictures of the turbines and the scenery.
Group discussions about wind power.

It's most efficient to align the turbines in rows. If topography and the wind regime allow it, the side-to-side spacing is 4 rotor diameters between each turbine, with a front-to-back spacing of 12 rotor diameters.
The blades spin up to 14-20 rpm, and the tips of the blades can travel up to 200 mph.
The surrounding geology was noteworthy too.

There were many impromptu discussions about wind energy and the construction of the wind farm.





Machinery used to operate a drag line at a coal mine near Hanna, WY. The drag line is used to remove the overburden and expose the coal.
Workshop leaders at the coal mine.


Mark Lyford from the University of Wyoming describes reclamation efforts at the coal mine.
The reclaimed areas were hard to distinguish from the undisturbed area.



Photos by Sarah Schulmeyer, University of Wyoming

Opening dinner at the workshop


Elk Mountain


Hanna coal mine



Photos by Mohamad-Ali Hasan, University of North Carolina, Charlotte

Wind turbines at the Happy Jack wind farm