PALMS SPRINGS, Calif. -- California's first Wind Energy Center was dedicated Tuesday eight miles northwest of Palm Springs by Southern California Edison Co.
For the first time in the state's history, utility customers began receiving a portion of their power from a huge wind turbine generator -- a modern windmill.
About 300 people, including local, state and federal officials, witnessed the utility's effort to develop wind among a variety of renewable resources to overcome its dependence on costly low-sulfur oil.
Edison board chairman William Gould and Russell Schweickart, chairman of the State Energy Commission, took part in the dedication ceremony at the 191-foot tall, triple-bladed unit. Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr., who was scheduled to take part, did not attend.
Depending on the time of day and force of wind at the desert area, as many as 1,000 residential customer can be served by electric power from the Bendix-Schachle 3,000-kilowatt generator.
'While this is the first to be built at the Wind Energy Center,' Gould said, 'it will be joined soon by another -- the Alcoa Darrieus Vertical Axis Wind Turbine-Generator.'
He said it looks like a 'giant inverted eggbeater' and represents a different approach to the problem of converting wind energy to electric power.
The wind turbine, he said, should be capable of saving up to 10,000 barrels of fuel oil a year and provide electricity for 800 to 1,000 customers.
The blades form a diameter of 165 feet with a power output of 3,000 kilowatts at 40 mph wind speed. The energy output is estimated at about six-million kilowatts a year for the wind regime at the desert location.
