Getting Wind Turbine Blades to the Top of a Mountain is Not Easy!

I’m not ashamed to admit I lived my entire life until just a couple of months ago without seeing a single one of these giant wind turbines in the wild. I’d seen them on television and in movies, of course, but I had no idea just how ridiculously large scale these things are up close and personal until I was on my way up to Michigan for the ADRL Summer Drags at US131 Dragway.

While they do provide an excellent source of clean energy for the surrounding areas, the monster windmills aren’t exactly easy to build, especially if they have to be assembled atop a mountain, like this one that’s being transported to its new home in China. As you can see, each blade of the propeller dwarf’s the eighteen wheeler transporting it, so much so that they have to use specially designed articulating transporters that allow a man riding on the back to move the blade itself in relation to the trailer to allow the rig to maneuver up the winding mountain road. When the blades are positioned in a certain orientation, they bear a striking resemblance to ants in the forest carrying leaves that are many times their size back to the colony, especially when the footage is sped up to show the activity.

You can tell this is an experienced crew that has made this trip before, as they waste very time and motion as they work the blade up the mountain. It’s certainly not an easy trip, but these guys make it look like it, working together in unison to keep clear of the trees and the other rigs and blades as well. Hopefully once they reached the top, everything fell into place and the final assembly process went well, putting another big turbine into action to help power the surrounding communities.