The Oswego Port Authority & the Maple Ridge Wind Farm - June, 2006
All photographs Copyright © 1996 - 2006 Jon R. Vermilye

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Although there have been a few small & medium scale wind farms built in the East, the Maple Ridge project is the largest east of the Mississippi. The story starts at the Port Authority in Oswego. Actually, it starts where the wind turbines are manufactured, but no one offered to send me to Viet Nam to take pictures...

The Oswego Port Authority	Maple Ridge, Lowville, NY	The Beluga Projects Arrives At Oswego	This One Is Filled With Blades & Waiting Its Turn

Ships loaded with wind turbine parts arrive at the Port Authority dock and are unloaded by JPW Riggers of Syracuse. It is one of the largest projects for the port in many years. While they were unloading base sections, another ship was waiting out beyond the harbor loaded with blades. The towers are shipped in 3 parts - While I was there they unloaded bottom tower sections and, after three days of unloading, started with the ship load of blades. After lowering the sections on flatbed trailers they are moved to a storage area east of the main building.

Unloading A Bottom Tower Section	Unloading A Bottom Tower Section	Unloading A Bottom Tower Section	Inside A Tower Section
Unloading A Bottom Tower Section	Almost Done	Unloading A Blade	Moving The Blade To Storage
Loaded For a Trip To The Farm	A 1.6MW Turbine Waiting To Go	Getting Ready to Ship	The Storage Area

Each day trucks haul the individual parts to the Maple Ridge area outside Lowville, NY. Multiple chase & lead cars are necessary - because of the long lengths of the parts (for example, the blades are 130' long) both lanes of traffic must be stopped when turning at intersections. The longest of the trailers have steerable rear wheels to assist turns.

Some basic information about the turbines:

The towers are 260' high - 320' to the tip of the blade, the turbine spins at 14RPM, each producing 1.6 megawatts of electricity. When finished, the output of the farm will be 324MW, enough to power 98,000 homes.

Check The Size Of The People & Van	This One Is Feathered So It Doesn't Turn	Needs a Crane & Two More Tower Sections!	Some Of The 200 Wind Turbines	Looking Up

To see the turbines, drive along NY Route 177 a few miles west of Lowville, NY. The project office, located on Eagle Factory Road has limited facilities for visitors. They maintain a website at http://www.horizonwind.com/projects/whatwevedone/mapleridge/. The turbines are on private land leased from local farmers & land owners. Although spread across 21,000 acres, you can get close enough to the towers to be awed by their size & majesty from the main road & many of the area county routes. Well worth a trip!

This page is maintained by: vermilye@oswego.edu
Last Update: May 10, 2013