Waiting to Fly

As I passed by the harbour in Härnösand these blades were waiting to be carried inland to a new wind farm.
Each summer new towers, turbines and blades arrive in the harbour and a fleet of specialist lorries take them to their inland destination, deep in the forest on the tops of fairly remote hills.
It is a sort of education into the latest technology. Last summer the blades had a sawtooth pattern on the trailing edge, to reduce the eddies  left in their wake. This year there's no sawtooth edge but the blades are a much more complex shape than in previous years. Every year the blades get longer, and the towers higher.
Härnösand's first wind turbine was built in 1985. Today's wind turbines each give 120 times more electricity than that first one. Our two most recent turbines provide the equivalent of 10% of the town's electricity, and the latest planned wind park, 40 minutes inland, will have 114 turbines. This is not entirely uncontroversial and there has been a lot of discussion on the pros and cons. But right now it is providing jobs, incomes, and taxes to our town!
I liked the picnic table in the lower-left of the picture. It gives a sense of scale to how large these blades are. It also adds a human element. The dock workers certainly have a fine canteen but on a sunny day they prefer to take their coffee in the fresh air!