How Palm Springs learned to love its wind turbines

The wind was so fierce that photographer Jennifer Corbin could barely open her car door. But that was exactly the aesthetic her client wanted for her pre-wedding photo shoot. Corbin began snapping photos against the backdrop of a field of nearly 500-foot-tall, white, slender wind turbines.

“Her hair was blowing in the wind, and she embraced that,” Corbin said. “We had sand all over our hair and faces by the time that session was over, but it was gorgeous.”

For many of the people Corbin photographs, the draw of Palm Springs isn’t the fan palms for which the California city is named or the untouched desert landscape. It’s the region’s massive wind turbine fields. Corbin estimates that she’s done 50 to 100 photo shoots at the turbines in recent years. Most of her clients fly in from other parts of the United States or even internationally to have these pictures taken.

Corbin admits that for those not from the area, the idea of a wind turbine wedding photo shoot may seem crazy, but at this point, it’s a mainstream part of her business.

“It does feel very different, but we strive for a certain type of client,” Corbin said. “We want people who want to explore and want to adventure on their wedding days, who want to do unique and different things.”

The wind turbine fields across the Coachella Valley, owned by energy companies and built on land leased by the government or private landowners, are an economic engine of Palm Springs, generating power for the region and revenue as the excess energy is sold across California.

But in the past decade, they’ve also taken on a new aesthetic appeal.

In Palm Springs, there are windmills everywhere you look - on decals plastered in local restaurant windows, photo illustrations splashed across a wall of the local Ford dealership, $40 T-shirts sold in the Windmill City Super #1 souvenir shop and in the background of NBC’s local nightly newscast.

Even as some renewable energy projects across the country have encountered fierce opposition, particularly from Republicans, the Palm Springs wind turbines have been embraced by many residents, who see them as an emblem of the city’s cultural identity - and by visitors, who see the towers as an intriguing tourist attraction.

Tom Spiglanin, director of education at Palm Springs Windmill Tours, offers both self-guided and golf cart tours of the wind turbines. His company also has a museum with artifacts from the original turbines installed in the 1980s. The demand for his services has grown over the past five years.

“The day after and the day before Thanksgiving we were so insanely busy out there,” Spiglanin said. “We had 40 slots for the day, plus the golf carts, and they were all booked. We were just double carting and had two different guides on two different golf carts taking five people each.”

Some of Spiglanin’s guests are wind aficionados who’ve visited many turbines around the country and even around the world. But he said Palm Springs is a unique spot because of the turbines’ ubiquitous appeal. Most of his clients are not wind-obsessed individuals, but rather people who are in town for conferences, conventions and vacation. He’s also hosted several weddings and wedding photo shoots on his property.

“We have had four- or five- or six-time repeat customers because they’ve got new guests in town,” Spiglanin said.

To be sure, not everyone in Palm Springs enjoys the sight of the wind turbines. Some people oppose the installation of new towers, citing concerns about noise and potential environmental impact to local species. Others appreciate the energy but would prefer the turbines to be out of sight.

In the 1970s, when the turbines were first proposed, they faced extreme opposition, especially from wealthy celebrity residents who owned second homes in the area.

“The former mayor, Frank Bogert, said we don’t want these ‘Mercedes symbols’ cluttering up our desert landscape,” said Paul Gipe, a renewable energy expert and former lobbyist with the American Wind Energy Association, referring to the wind turbines’ three-pronged blades. “And the actress Dolores Hope in particular didn’t want them, because she had a big mansion and she looked out over the San Gorgonio Pass, which is a desert wash and she didn’t want to see these windmills.”

Gipe said the city began to embrace wind energy in the late 1980s when Mayor Sonny Bono, of the singing duo Sonny and Cher, saw the potential to tax wind developers. At the time, the idea that these turbines also could be a tourist attraction was not a factor in the developers’ or city’s thinking. But the current local government sees it as a growing opportunity.

“The City certainly supports the windmills as part of our overall strong commitment to sustainability, and it certainly adds a unique dimension to our local tourism allure,” council member David Ready said in an email.

Jeanine Romo, a travel blogger, said that when she first posted pictures of herself with the turbines in 2021 on her blog and on Instagram, she was inundated with direct messages about how to photograph them, so she made a how-to guide.

“They’re absolutely iconic to the area,” Romo said.

Wedding and family photographer Kate Waldis drove nearly 20 hours for a portfolio-building workshop in Palm Springs last year. She and 30 other photographers spent an entire day photographing a couple against the backdrop of the turbines.

“There’s this contrast between them being in a fancy white dress and a windmill that makes it such a unique photo shoot opportunity,” Waldis said. “I drove from Austin, Texas, to Palm Springs and back by myself for it.”

Martin Pasqualetti, a geography professor at Arizona State University, who has written extensively about the visual impacts of renewable energy landscapes, said the local embrace of wind in Palm Springs is largely because they’ve come to be considered part of the desert landscape rather than a controversial addition.

“What you’ve got here is a generational change,” Pasqualetti said. “You’ve got people who are moving in after the wind turbines were there, versus people who were living there before the wind turbines.”

He said that because Palm Springs was one of the first wind energy projects in the country, most locals have grown up with the wind turbines, so they think of the machines as part of the very fabric of the region. Corbin and her husband have a special spot by the train station where they go to visit the turbines and watch the sunset.

“I’ve lived here my whole life, and the Palm Springs wind turbines have been there as long as I can remember,” Corbin said. “You know that you’re hitting Palm Springs when you start to see them. I don’t think they take from the scenery at all. I think they add.”

Others say they embrace the turbines for their clean energy associations. Hanna Walkowaik, a photographer who has done a shoot at the turbines, said that they represent California’s energy values, which translates to a growing aesthetic interest.

“Not only are there windmills, not only are we in the desert, but the renewable energy aspect of the windmills feels very California,” Walkowaik said. “It feels like living in the future.”