Yesterday a group of us from school were able to go on a little excursion out of Vienna to get a tour of a wind energy park. It was also one of the hottest days we've had so far this year, so we tried as best we could to stay hydrated and not melt in the 90 plus degree heat and bright sunshine. We took the train out to Deutsch Wagram, which is just east of Vienna in Lower Austria. From there we had about a 30 minute walk outside the town and through some fields to the actual wind park.
passing the thirsty looking corn...
They really are huge when you're standing right underneath one...it's hard to capture the exact size of this, but the base of the sort of "mast" part is large enough for about 10 people to stand inside with the machine.
The guy who works there gave us a bit of history of the technology and exactly what happens to the energy that is collected here...these are actually sort of co-op windmills, shared by residents of the local town, which helps keep some of them happy about having these sitting out there. Through a mix of German and English we got lots of information and had time to ask questions, and I know I definitely learned a lot that I didn't know before.
We also all got to go inside the sort of control room in the base of the windmill. Sort of amazing that this huge machine is run by this tiny little control panel...but sure enough, we were able to change the direction of the blades, and start and stop the whole thing. I also don't know if you can see this guy's shirt very well in this picture, but I thought it was really cool...it's the nuclear symbol morphing into a windmill.
After we were finished it was a long walk back through the hot fields and into town again to catch the train home...we did however all stop for some ice cream on the way back, not a bad end to our little field trip.
No comments:
Post a Comment