The first project consisted of four wind turbines and a
solar panel to provide electrical power to an
elementary school and the school superintendant's house
November 1, 2008: Eighteen of us took a Wind Farm tour in Pigeon, MI. The initiative began in 2005 with a project to provide electricity to a local elementary school and adjoining residence. In 2007, John Deere Credit financed a project to install 32 commercial windmills at a cost exceeding $90 million. Installation of the first windmill began in May 2007 and the 32nd windmill was completed just six months later in October.

Our guide told us about the school / house project first
John filmed the tour for our local TV station

These are two of the three 80 foot tall,10KW windmills
supplying power to the school
The third 10KW turbine lost a blade as the result of a
load balancing problem and is currently idle

The turbines are about the size of an automobile.
Anemometers on tops of the turnbines provide input to
the devices' automatic systems which ensure that they
are facing into the wind.
Access to the turbines and blades is through a door at
the base of the towers. Once inside, a ladder will get
you to the top.

This smaller 10KW turbine provides power to the
school superintendant's house ...
... as does this 1200W self-tracking solar panel.
In the background are some of the thirty-two 1.65MW
turbines owned by John Deere Wind Energy

The 32 John Deere Wind Energy 1.65MW turbines, each
about the size of a railroad car, sit on top of 250 foot tall
towers. Each blade is 130 feet long. We are standing
approximately 600 feet from Turbine # 1.

The three 130 foot blades were assembled as a unit on the
ground and then hoisted into place with a "super-crane"
The 32 windmills are distributed across 3200 acres and
can supply enough electricity to service 15,000 homes.

Each windmill sits on a pad about 50 feet in diameter
and requires a service road for maintenance.
Farmers receive an annual payment for each windmill on
their land and are free to plant crops right up to the edges
of the pad and the service road

For participating land owners, windmills must be at least
600 feet from any residence. For non-participating land
owners, the distance is 3/4 of a mile
Another residential windmill.