I have come to see wind turbines as God’s gift to us

When my wife and I turned off Interstate 10 at Bakersfield Exit 307 last year for our introductory visit with folks at First UMC, McCamey, we were amazed. We saw what appeared to be little dinky three-bladed windmills atop the mesas all around.
From the highway they looked small and fragile. The long, thin blades were nothing like those of the window exhaust fans or the windmills on the old farms I knew from my boyhood in New York state. Those fans had the fat part of the blade at the outer end.
I laughed, thinking the engineers who designed those fans had a lot to learn about how fan blades move air.
Of course, I was wrong. It is the air that moves the fan blades here, and the science of that sort of thing works differently from what I learned in college back in 1957.
At the Easter Sunrise Service on King Mountain this year, I was close enough to see the full extent of one of the wind turbines. Those things just sit there on top of the mesa and turn day and night. There is absolutely no sound. Sound speaks of inefficiency, of poorly lubricated bearings and of wind impinging on fan blades at an inappropriate angle.
The length of the fan blade is more than 100 feet. The tower height is 147 to 223 feet from ground to the turbine hub. These structures are massive and delicate at the same time.
I didn’t realize each wind turbine had a computer attached to a wind speed and direction sensor. That computer controlled each turbine so as to face the fan directly into the oncoming wind.
The data that intrigue me most are the power-generation numbers. Although the rotors turn 13 to 19 times per minute, depending on wind speed, they generate a lot of electrical energy. The standard a very short time ago was 1.3 megawatts per unit. Now units can produce 3 megawatts.
Let me try to put that into perspective. The 1.3-megawatt unit could supply electricity for 59 houses running at maximum amperage. The 3 megawatt-generator could supply 136 houses.
Each house probably always runs at something less than 30 percent of the rated amperage, so it would be easy to assume the number of houses supplied by one wind turbine could be double or triple the calculated number of houses if actual service conditions were used instead of maximum load.
These wind turbines run 24 hours a day, and no money is spent for energy.
In steam generation plants one has to buy oil or other combustible material to make heat to drive the steam generators so as to drive the steam turbines.
Nuclear powered plants also need fuel. Uranium is costly and is expendable.
And with no combustion or nuclear fuel, there is no environmental pollution. There is no smoke. There is no need to reclaim or dispose of spent nuclear fuel. Wind turbines are inherently clean.
I have come to regard wind turbines as God’s gift to humankind. They are the epitome of clean and therefore a portent to responsible use of God’s world. There are neither hazards nor pollution.
They are good business because how else can you produce electrical energy and have only the investment, maintenance, transmission lines, right of way, lease agreements and taxes as the costs with no ongoing fuel costs? 
These are the awesome wonders that we awake to every morning and watch out our kitchen windows. They just sit there against the skyline and turn, giving me goose bumps at what they represent.
I am in awe right here in McCamey. From my vantage point I can see that we are leaders in responsible use of God’s world.  It is no wonder that the 2002 Texas State Travel Guide calls McCamey “The Wind Energy Capital of Texas.”