San Gorgonio Pass
Mixed Media Painting on Archival Gesso Board in a Black Metal Floater Frame.
This painting is part of my Ecological Landscape series.
San Gorgonio Pass in California is one of the nation’s deepest mountain passes, is located in the northwestern region of Coachella Valley, and is home to one of the nation's largest wind farms. It contains more than 4000 separate windmills in a 70-square-mile area and provides enough electricity to power Palm Springs and the entire Coachella Valley. The San Gorgonio Pass has proven to be a reliable location for wind energy production due to stable wind flows caused by warm desert air mixing with cooler coastal air, producing average wind speeds of 15 to 20 mph. The winds generally are strongest during the summer months when electricity demands are at their highest. The San Gorgonio wind farm’s 4,000 wind turbines have a capacity of 359 MW and an annual generation of about 893 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity as of April 2009. The San Gorgonio wind resource area is one of three primary regions, the others being Tehachapi Pass and Altamont Pass. Together these three areas account for nearly 95 percent of all commercial wind power generation in California, and approximately 11 percent of the world’s wind-generated electricity. They produce more than enough to light a city the size of San Francisco.
This painting is part of my Ecological Landscape series.
San Gorgonio Pass in California is one of the nation’s deepest mountain passes, is located in the northwestern region of Coachella Valley, and is home to one of the nation's largest wind farms. It contains more than 4000 separate windmills in a 70-square-mile area and provides enough electricity to power Palm Springs and the entire Coachella Valley. The San Gorgonio Pass has proven to be a reliable location for wind energy production due to stable wind flows caused by warm desert air mixing with cooler coastal air, producing average wind speeds of 15 to 20 mph. The winds generally are strongest during the summer months when electricity demands are at their highest. The San Gorgonio wind farm’s 4,000 wind turbines have a capacity of 359 MW and an annual generation of about 893 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity as of April 2009. The San Gorgonio wind resource area is one of three primary regions, the others being Tehachapi Pass and Altamont Pass. Together these three areas account for nearly 95 percent of all commercial wind power generation in California, and approximately 11 percent of the world’s wind-generated electricity. They produce more than enough to light a city the size of San Francisco.