OWC Turbine Turns Head
I admit, I don’t live next door to this thing. Nor am I a bat or migrating bird.
But in honor of Earth Day—(which was last week…but really isn’t every day Earth Day?) I’ve chosen to feature McHenry County’s most visible foray into alternative energy, The Other World Computing wind turbine.
It’s out in a field behind the company’s Woodstock office and as you’re heading in or out of Woodstock on Route 14, you can’t miss it. The thing is huge. According to OWC’s website, the tower is 131 feet tall, and the turbine itself is 194 feet high, extending from the top of a blade. It can produce power rotating at just nine miles per hour and the blade housing turns completely around so it can face into winds of up to 150 miles per hour. The thought of it and an F-5 tornado sharing space isn’t a pleasant one, but hey, that’s just me.
It also produces more energy in a week than what OWCs corporate office uses in a month. The rest is sold back to an energy provider, which powers more local homes and businesses. I think that’s pretty cool. No fossil fuels. No smoke. No freaky Three Mile Island/Chernobyl/Japanese earthquake scenarios to play out. No nothing. Just wind, which we’ll never run out of.
I know there are concerns about noise and wind turbines’ impact on birds, bats, etc. Once you get past their kind of other-worldly novelty, they aren’t much to look at. But regardless of where you fall in the whole climate change/diminishing fossil fuels debate, alternative energy is part of the future.
Nice to see a McHenry County business embracing it.
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