1/17/2006: Horizontal windmill

[linknoid]

Growing up in the middle of California, we'd occasionally take trips over to the coast, in or near the San Fransisco bay area. On the way there, there were hills covered with tons of windmills of different designs. I always thought it was strange, though, usually when we drove past only certain ones would be moving. But what I recall most about the egg beater type windmills is that none of them were ever spinning. I kind of suspect maybe they need a lot more wind to get started than an ordinary windmill.

Either that, or they just locked some of them down so they wouldn't spin to make the ones that were running more efficient...