{"id":278699,"date":"2023-09-14T13:47:35","date_gmt":"2023-09-14T11:47:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=278699"},"modified":"2023-09-14T13:47:38","modified_gmt":"2023-09-14T11:47:38","slug":"grid-wind-power-more-pre-history-1979-doe-bust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=278699","title":{"rendered":"Grid Wind Power: More Pre-history (1979 DOE bust)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

From Master Resource<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Robert Bradley Jr.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cI was in Boone, North Carolina, from 1977 through May 1983 at Appalachian State and, trust me, we got many laughs out of this windmill. Especially how it generated one MW of reliable electricity and, somehow, did so without the blades ever turning.\u201d   \u2013 Victor Culpepper<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

On social media, environmental scientist Victor Culpepper<\/a> remarked (above) about an early wind project with reference to an article, Ill-Fated Windmill Just Outside Boone<\/a> (July 11, 2016). A previous MasterResource post recounted<\/a> the 1940\u201345 Grandpa\u2019s Knob grid wind power project in Vermont; the article below from North Carolina\u2019s Department of Natural and Cultural Resources summarizes a 1979 wind project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

On July 11, 1979,<\/strong> Boone celebrated \u201cWindmill Day\u201d with a street festival to dedicate NASA\u2019s Mod-1, the world\u2019s largest megawatt industrial windmill on Howard\u2019s Knob.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The windmill was installed on the 4,400-foot peak as part of a program run by NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy to study wind power in response to the petroleum shortages of the 1970s OPEC oil embargo. The mammoth steel structure\u2014which was 140 feet tall, 200 feet wide across the blades, and weighed more than 350 tons\u2014had propellers supplied by Boeing and generator by General Electric.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation ran the project locally to return electricity, anticipated to power 500 homes, to the energy grid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A harbinger of the project\u2019s fate, the winds only blew at about 6 miles per hour that first day, requiring manual rotation of the propeller blades. The windmill was soon plagued by terminal structural issues, inconsistent winds and negative public perception from complaints of noise, disrupted television reception and wasted public dollars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Too costly to repair, the federal government dismantled and sold the windmill in 1983.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The windmill also became the centerpiece of pranks by Appalachian State University students. In one account, TV news cameras were met by students dressed in sheets, calling themselves \u201cWooshies\u201d who worshipped the god Nay-zuh [that is, NASA].<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI was in Boone, North Carolina, from 1977 through May 1983 at Appalachian State and, trust me, we got many laughs out of this windmill.\u00a0Especially how it generated one MW of reliable electricity and, somehow, did so without the blades ever turning.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0\u2013 Victor Culpepper<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":278702,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691822597,691822596,691822595],"class_list":["post-278699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-grid-wind-power","tag-reliable-electricity","tag-victor-culpepper","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/1067200.jpg?fit=1920%2C1440&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1av9","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":277453,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=277453","url_meta":{"origin":278699,"position":0},"title":"U.S. Grid Wind Power: Free Market Failure (1940-45)","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"09\/06\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"The quest to make electricity from wind attracted entrepreneurs well before government mandates and subsidies got involved in the 1970s. 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