Wind turbine blades spanning two flat cars on a freight train on the Union Pacific Northwest Line heading west.
Wind turbine propellers passed through downtown Arlington Heights westbound on the UP Northwest line in June 2011. Wind turbine blades are made of aluminum and carbon composite. They are made as light as possible so the inertia force is minimum for quick startup of the blades when the winds pickup from a calm state. The bigger the blades, the faster the speed of the tips. Factors affecting speed are coordinated with the characteristics of the generator that converts the kinetics energy of the motion of the blades to electric power.
The blades were apparently headed for a wind farm somewhere west of Chicago or Wisconsin.
A beautiful video of a wind farm in Lena, Illinois, about 50 miles northwest of Rockford, Illinois.
The Eco Grove Wind Farm includes more than 60 wind towers producing 100 MW, and was completed in 2010.
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The blades look huge! They look much smaller when they are up.