Dave Daniel Photography

Motorists on I-65 are enjoying an interesting distraction just north of Lafayette as they enter the middle of an immense wind energy farm with wind turbines towering over 250′. The wind farm is home to over 600 wind turbines spread across 100,000 acres. The entire farm provides thousands of megawatts of clean energy to local energy users. Honestly, there really isn’t much of interest to look at on northern Indiana highways, but as I found myself looking around the countryside at the countless wind turbines, I began to wonder if the accident rate has increased on this stretch of highway.

After many trips through the area, I finally managed a short stop to get a handful of images. Pictures don’t do these turbines justice, as they are incredibly large with a total height of 372 feet, and there are so many of them. On the windy day I stopped, the 110 foot long blades made a low vibration as they slowly spun. Even though the blades turn at a seemingly slow speed of 15rpm, the tip speed is high enough to blur them in the photos.

I plan on returning to the area in the near future to take a number of night shots. It’s really hard to describe, but picture hundreds of red lights a couple hundred feet in the air, flashing on and off in unison well off to the horizon. The area truly looks like a sci-fi invasion. Meanwhile, enjoy these daytime shots of a very small fraction of the turbines in the area.