Four of the six newly erected Strauss Wind Project windmills tower over the landscape off San Miguelito Canyon Road south of Lompoc. 
When completed, the Strauss Wind Project will operate 29 towering wind turbine generators. 
The nearly 500-foot-tall windmills dwarf the heavy equipment being used to erect them at the Strauss Wind Project. 
A truck hauling a massive wind turbine blade crawls toward the Strauss Wind Project site near Lompoc. 
A 220-foot windmill blade stretches well beyond its flatbed ride. 
Whether near or far, the size of the windmills are enormous.
Santa Barbara County’s first commercial wind farm is rising into place on a ridge a few miles south of Lompoc.
After weeks of enormous components being trucked through the Central Coast, the first six wind turbine generators — each with three 220-foot blades — have been assembled at the Strauss Wind Project site off San Miguelito Canyon Road.
Strauss Wind LLC, an affiliate of BayWa r.e. Wind LLC, proposed the 98 megawatt wind energy project on 2,970 acres in Santa Barbara County jurisdiction.
The project will generate enough electricity to power 44,000 homes, officials have said.
The company received county permission to install some 29 wind turbine generators up to 492 feet tall.
The project also included a new 7.3-mile, 115-kilovolt transmission line to interconnect with the Pacific Gas & Electric Co. grid, substation, and operations and maintenance facility.
Starting in October, the company began shipping key components with the massive pieces serving as an attraction as they traveled via truck to and then through Lompoc.
The wind farm has taken more than 10 years to reach this point amid fierce opposition from neighbors and others concerned about noise, bird deaths, visual pollution and fire danger, sparking appeals and lawsuits.
A previous proposal, dubbed the Lompoc Wind Energy Project, received approval but was never built at the site after a different company backed out. That project included up to 65 wind turbines.
— Noozhawk North County editor Janene Scully can be reached at jscully@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
