SHERMAN COUNTY, OR — look at the one renewable source of energy that started booming a decade ago: wind power. Companies like GE and Seimens make turbines; the federal government offers utilities big financial incentives to build wind farms; and as Kristian Foden-Vencil reports, hundreds of windmills have gone up in Oregon alone. Biglow Wind Farm consists of about 80 enormous windmills on the ridge of the Columbia River Gorge. Standing underneath one, you can actually hear the blades swooshing past at 120 miles-per-hour. Biglow Wind Farm – Photos by Kristian Foden-Vencil Today, Eric Melbardis has offered to take me up a tower to see a turbine up close. Eric Melbardis: ‘What we’re going to do now is climb to check on a couple of technicians that are performing preventative maintenance. See you in a little bit. Kristian: ‘So I’m the first 30 or 40 rungs up a ladder that reaches almost up to the sky. It goes up 260 to 280 feet which is the equivalent of the justice center in downtown Portland, that may be about 26 stories high and I’ve just got to keep climbing. Eric Melbardis: ‘Okay […]