I drive the gorge two to four times a year. But, to my eye, those slack periods seem to be the rule rather than the norm.
My dad was the Program Manager at General Electric for the first big multi-megawatt wind turbines. His team installed the first prototype units at the San Gorgonio Pass in CA, in Hawaii, and in Goldendale, Washington. I was in the fossil fuel power industry in those years and kept telling him those wind turbines were never going to succeed commercially. We used to have fun jousting about wind vs fossil way back around 1980!
No, I don’t think too many people would agree with you that the Columbia Gorge isn’t windy. It is the freshwater wind surfing and kite board capital of the world! I lost a 50’ spruce to those winds in November, and a friend lost a tied-down C-182 in about 2000.
The overall all-year average wind speed is 10 mph, but that is taken from points all through the gorge, not at the high wind locations where the turbines are sited.
The wind surfers know the situation best:
“The Columbia River Gorge offers a full range of riding conditions and wind speeds typically from 10-25mph however, some days it can blow strong 25-35+mph. The predominate riding conditions during the summer months of May to September are westerly winds, opposite of the Columbia River current.”
Yep, I remember those early turbines near Goldendale. My dad was involved in the war effort; was relocated from Los Alamos to Hanford in 1943, I think it was.