Grant Highlight - Wild Horse Wind Farm Field Trip
April 23, 2010 - Student Comments
The Wild Horse Wind and Solar Facility is located in Central Washington about 15 miles east of Ellensburg. Puget Sound Energy's second wind-powered electric generation facility is also the utility's largest wind farm with 149 turbines (Click here for more information).
Nearly 60 students from International Community School and Redmond High School Environmental Science classes participated in the field trip. This field trip was made possible due to a grant from the Lake Washington Schools Foundation.
Here are some of the comments from the students after the field trip:
"Overall, I thought the visit to the wind farm was very enlightening. One thing that really stood out to me was how little space the wind turbines took up compared to the amount of land they had. There was really a lot of empty space. This made me think that wind farming really might be a realistic way to power society in the future. "
"In all honesty, before we actually went to the wind farm I thought that the field trip was going to be pointless and we wouldn’t learn anything that we couldn’t learn from a short video. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was wrong. The impact of seeing how big the turbines are and how much space and planning has to go into a wind farm is remarkable."
"Going to the Wild Horse Wind Farm in Ellensburg, Washington made me realize the reality of wind energy as a viable source of renewable energy in the future. I see that wind energy’s no emission techniques can actually reduce our dependence on coal greatly.
"I was surprised at the sheer size of the turbines, especially when standing directly underneath one, seeing the enormous blades circle overhead. I’m considering a future in engineering, so the structural feats of creating an enormous field full of functional wind turbines taller than the Statue of Liberty at their highest point spoke to me even more."
"What stood out to me the most about the visit was not just the size of the turbines or blades themselves but the way that standing under one and seeing it move, with such a high blade tip speed despite the relatively low wind speed, made me realize just how much energy could really be produced by these turbines. Even if the amount of energy produced by wind turbines like these is still relatively low, seeing them in action helped me understand that they could, at least in the future someday, make a serious impact on the way in which energy is produced around the country or the world."
"The Wild Horse Wind Farm Field Trip was made possible with a grant from the Lake Washington Schools Foundation. Yeah!, “smiley face,” WOOT!, Cool."