Just by dumb luck, my first day of work consisted of my department going on a field trip. So we all reported to the office early, piled into a small van (my department is very small, only 12 people) and drove out of Madrid up North for about an hour and a half.
Our destination was the Maranchon Wind Farm, which is owned and operated by Iberdrola. It also happens to be the largest operating wind farm in Europe at 208 MW. That means it can power roughly 200,000 homes when operating at full capacity (which is quite uncommon for wind energy because it doesn't always blow).
The long ride let the other new intern and myself meet everyone in a relaxed atmosphere, which was great for the first day. We were all very laid back and in good spirits.
This is the view as we were driving up.
There are 104 identical turbines, each one rated at 2 MW (104 * 2 = 208 MW). These may not look very big from far away, but I couldn't help but feel a sense of wonder when I stood under one. Here's a cool picture of the experience.
And I was shocked how quiet they were, although they weren't running anywhere near full speed because it wasn't a very windy day. Still, check out the impressive video below to get a sense of scale.I'm sure you're wondering, so the answer is they are each more than 100 meters (330 feet) tall. Each blade is a little under 45 meters (150 feet) long. Here's a really good picture to put this into scale. The turbine in the middle has 3 people doing some maintenance directly to the right of the blade, below the gearbox. If you look really hard you can see them - how's that for big!
And another pic of me with the turbines.
As if the day couldn't get any more cool, we stopped for a very nice lunch at an old castle now converted into a hotel. It was a five course ordeal, complete with many bottles of wine and post dinner coffee and sherry.
Perhaps calling this my first day of work is a misnomer, since it implies I actually did something!Click here for additional pictures.
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