The first wind turbines were placed on the Altamont in the early 1980s by Fayette Manufacturing Corporation, on land owned by cattle rancher Joe Jess.

This portion of the freeway was an increasingly used corridor for growing the bedroom communities of Tracy, Lodi and Modesto serving the Bay Area of California (Oakland, San Francisco and Pleasanton).

The increased visibility from the nearby I-580 freeway, which had once sparked the media and community's interest, was now widely regarded as a growing eyesore.

[citation needed] Successful windfarms at the Altamont Pass encouraged the development of further industrial wind areas in southern California.

These windfarms, in the Tehachapi Pass, led to wider recognition, after windmills played a role as a prominent backdrop in several feature films of the mid- and late 1980s, including the 1985 film based on the Bret Easton Ellis novel Less than Zero, featuring Andrew McCarthy and Robert Downey, Jr. Modern wind turbines and nuclear power plans kill about 0.3 to 0.4 birds per GWh generated, without climate change effects, in comparison with 5.18 birds per GWh with fossil fuels power plants.

[4] Considered largely obsolete, these numerous small turbines are as of 2009 being gradually replaced with much larger and more cost-effective units.

The larger units rotate at a much lower angular frequency to the previous turbines, and, being elevated higher, are less hazardous to the local wildlife, according to a report done for the Bonneville Power Administration.