Edge of the Gorge

The Columbia River Gorge can be a very windy place, and often when I'm driving through the gorge it will be windy in one section and completely still in another.  East of the Dalles, at the far end of the gorge, the hills are dotted with wind turbines on both sides of the river.  This particular wind farm is on the Washington side, heading away from the gorge and toward Goldendale.  One problem with wind farm energy is that the turbines only produce energy when the wind is blowing, and there is no way to store the energy when there is no wind.  I read an article in the paper the other day about a multi-billion dollar project in this area of the gorge that will use the excess wind energy to pump water up a hill to a reservoir at the top, and then when the wind dies down, they can run that water downhill and harness the energy from that.  It's called energy integration, and it complements the energy harnessed from the dams along the Columbia (although it only represents a tiny fraction of the energy produced by hydropower along the river.)

Delta Breeze

This stretch of hills on Vasco Rd, which runs between Brentwood and Livermore in the delta, is taking good advantage of our wonderful "Delta Breeze."  The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta lies at the intersection of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers; the American River merges with the Sacramento River upstream in Sacramento.  And the delta is what fills the San Francisco Bay to the west.  It's an extremely beautiful and unique stretch of land and water, and because it has such a low elevation compared to the surrounding hills, we often get a strong breeze through here, which makes the summer heat more bearable. 

Morning Fog and No Wind

On the road today, and our route took us through the wind farm near Rio Vista.  We had thick fog starting in Dixon, and it was just beginning to lighten as we approached the wind farm.  I thought it was a pretty cool looking scene with the morning light filtering in behind the turbines.  They were turning ever so slowly, but it didn't feel like there was any wind to me.  

Montezuma Hills

Another photo from yesterday's drive to the Montezuma Hills wind farm near Rio Vista.  I would say there are three main commodities in Montezuma Hills:  wind energy, hay, and sheep.  (You can consider that foreshadowing if I decide to keep this series up for a third day.)  This was the only field where the hay is already baled.  I think it gives the photo a lot of depth, which I normally don't achieve with a landscape shot.  This one wasn't taken through my windshield, and the lack of polarization shows.  I actually have a polarizer for this lens, but I somehow left it at home, which was really stupid because clouds and sky is a classic use for polarizing.