Sunday, September 24, 2006

turbine up close on a windy day

i went down to the turbine today to record sound & video. a nice windy day. watching this with headphones will help give you a sense of the huge blades rushing past - i used binaural microphones to record the sound; they provide pretty realistic stereo separation:


Tuesday, September 19, 2006

the turbine is up and running!

the turbine was spinning away as of this morning. here is a short clip of the view from behind the art building:

Monday, September 18, 2006

turbine spinning

i went for a run today up on campus, and just as i came down the hill on the west side of campus the turbine started spinning up. it ran for a while; the last time i saw it it had stopped again. they get it up to speed by running it like a motor, then let it go. maybe they were running some tests?

Saturday, September 02, 2006

so when's it gonna start spinning?


this morning I spoke with Slade Dezeler, Boldt Millwright General Foreman, and he said there is quite a bit more electrical work to be done in addition to some remaining mechanical work, retensioning bolts, etc. they hope to commission the turbine sometime next week - just in time for the beginning of the term!

Friday, September 01, 2006

video - of the slower variety

jonathan larson made this 10-minute highlight reel (not time lapse) of the wind turbine installation.

link

time lapse movie of the whole project

so here it is, the whole thing in one time lapse movie. i've posted two sizes; either way it's a big file (thanks to bob breid et al for increasing my web space quota). as with all of the movies, you can drag the little playback head to skip around the movie.


320x240 (8MB)
640x480 (23MB)

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

still photos from the big day

i've made a gallery of photos from tuesday's final push to finish the wind turbine. the pictures are in chronological order. unfortunately i was too late this morning to catch the whole crew for a crew photo, but i did meet kirk ilenda of Boldt's business development manager for their minnesota operations. he emailed me a photo he took of the Boldt millwright crew this morning (in the fog); it's the last photo in the gallery.

link to gallery

propeller lift time lapse movie

camera 1: wide viewcamera 2: closeup

generator lift time lapse

camera 1: wide viewcamera 2: closeup

final tower section time lapse

camera 1: wide viewcamera 2: close up

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

turbine is up!

i have a lot more to post, but i thought i'd put this image up

Saturday, August 26, 2006

propeller panoramas

shot a pair of panoramas right next to the assembled propeller as it sits waiting for monday's installation:

propeller assembly stills

Thursday, August 24, 2006

propeller assembly time lapse movies

two slightly different angles:

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

2nd tower section raising time lapse

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

tower base raising time lapse

tower base arrived and installed

Monday, August 21, 2006

top two tower sections arrived


Friday, August 18, 2006

turbine hub and generator arrived



Thursday, August 17, 2006

turbine propeller blades arrived