Co-op News
Best Photo: Texas Winds of Time
Editor’s note: This is the last in an ECT.coop series of award-winning photos, and the stories behind them, from the 2011 Spotlight on Excellence national awards program, which recognizes outstanding work by co-op communicators. The program is sponsored by the Council of Rural Electric Communicators and NRECA.
In Schleicher County, Texas, two windmills, two uses, two eras, one photo. (Photo By: Eddie Albin)
Before wind turbines dotted the nation’s plains, windmills pumped water to farms lacking access to lakes and other forms of surface water.
“The Evolution of Wind Power,” taken by Eddie Albin at Southwest Texas Electric Cooperative, Eldorado, captures that transformation in a single frame. Albin’s photo won an award from NRECA’s Spotlight on Excellence contest.
“I thought it would be a fun comparison, to see how wind power has changed,” said Albin, the co-op’s manager of consumer services.
“The windmill [in the foreground] is about 50 or 60 years old, and it’s still working,” he said. “This windmill pumps water for livestock and wildlife in the arid west Texas landscape. Without it, farmers and ranchers would be unable to provide water.”
As for the newfangled counterparts, the wind turbines are some of the first wind farms in the co-op’s 7,000-square mile service area.
One thing that didn’t make it into the final photo was “an old bull,” under the water pump mill, Albin said. “He was looking at me, saying, ‘What are you doing?’”