The land of contrasts

Take a trip through Kansas and you're bound to see something amazing. Not the world's largest gopher or ball of twine - no, not that amazing. But something pretty cool. Big Brutus, the world's largest remaining electric shovel in the world. Second largest in history, this 16 story tall digger weighs 11 million pounds and was used 24 hours a day, seven days a week from 1963 to 1974 when its purpose expired in what is now a field in southeastern Kansas. Why would one need a shovel that used 15,000 horsepower to move 150 tons of material at a time? Energy. Coal to be specific. Big Brutus moved 150 tons of overburden (everything above the
coal) and lumbered through Kansas fields, its internal generators cranking enough electricity to power a community of 30,000 homes. But it was for the shovel, not for the homes. The coal, that was for the homes. http://www.bigbrutus.org/


Now fast forward 14 days.....

Coming back from Colorado on a never ending ribbon of asphalt leads to hallucinations. I thought I drove past miles of wind turbines. Rub those eyes and look again in the rear view - still there. Tradewind Energy, headquartered in Lenexa, Kansas, has some goodies for the Kansans. 250 megawatts of good ole fashioned wind generated energy from the same stiff crosswinds that blow the tumbleweeds across I-70 and leads me Cozy Burgers, the best way to enter a homestretch drive from Denver back to KC.
The Smoky Hills Wind Farm just west of Salina, KS at the conclusion of Phase II construction which will add enough wind power to provide service to 45,000 homes, will occupy about 1-2 percent of the 14,000 acres that it currently spans. And if you're counting CO2's, that amounts to an offset of 450,000 tons. http://www.tradewindenergy.com/