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Wind Farms

T

The Dukester

Well-known Member
Does anyone on here live in or near a Wind Farm? I'm curious about them because there is quite a "stir" about them in my neighborhood. It appears there is pending a decision in our township to allow the construction of several wind generator sets in our area with one scheduled to be built within a half mile of my house....right where I can see it as I watch the sun go down. So if anyone would care to comment on this subject I'd sure appreciate it.
 
I've had an application into the state for 6 months now. Not a peep other than acknowledging my request.. :>(

Allan
 
I have worked with a few farmers putting wind generators on their property. It's always a big issue, no one wants them in their backyard blocking their view. It honestly is a way to help a farmer stay in business, reduce their utility bill, and maybe make a few extra bucks. I am all for it if that is the way it is going. If it is someone not farming and just wanting to plop 8 of them down then I am not as supportive. We have seen a few "get rich" type schemes with these at work for people with land, but aren't traditonal farmers. Just about every state and Federal Agency does not consider wind turbines "farming". Typically a lengthy study needs to be done to determine if it is even feasible to put one of these up. At a cost of $400,000 for a half megawatt generator and up most people are going to put them in an area worth while. It's really a toss up... look at a wind mill and buy energy a neighbor made or energy that was created from oil/coal/nukes. And just as a reference, the last project I worked with the 3 lane highway a quarter of a mile from the subdevelopment complaining about the turbines made about 30 decibels higher ambient noise then the 5 proposed 3 megawatt generators would have. Study was done by an indpenedent group not affiliated with the farmer or the people in the development that the town hired.
 
Here in Washingtons Kittitas valley we are practically surrounded by them. From my driveway I can see the Wildhorse Wind Farm 16 miles away to the east. To the west and North more are being put up. I don"t believe they are economically viable yet and they do not provide a storage capacity for unused power. I had looked at putting a small one up here at home to help lower my power bill. The pay off just wasn"t there.
 
The spinning blades do nail some birds; new ones aren't near as noisy as they were twenty years ago. As for storage, over near Dallas Center in Iowa, they are using 'waste' power to pump air underground into a cavern of bedrock; this air can be released to power turbines to make electricity when needed.
 
(quoted from post at 07:40:50 05/10/11) Does anyone on here live in or near a Wind Farm? I'm curious about them because there is quite a "stir" about them in my neighborhood. It appears there is pending a decision in our township to allow the construction of several wind generator sets in our area with one scheduled to be built within a half mile of my house....right where I can see it as I watch the sun go down. So if anyone would care to comment on this subject I'd sure appreciate it.
Click to expand...

I do not live within sight of any, and I do not want to. In my opinion they are nothing more than a flash in the pan and will be obsolete in just a few more years, and when that happens, who is responsible for taking it down and then returning your farm to a productive, crop raising and food growing enterprise???
 
"Invisible" telephone and electrical WIRES kill millions of birds every year. Likewise free roaming cats. If you want to save birds start there.
 
Recently received a notice of a hearing being held here (Oregon) of a proposed law outlawing commercial wind farms and solar sites on hi-value farm land. (It's just a small step from there to outlaw them for your own use) Just one more right taken away from us and another nail in our coffin.
 
Got hundreds of them here in northern NY and no big issues other than the predicable "not in my back yard" reaction from a small number of people. Like someone else below said, cats kill a whole lot more birds than windmills do. Most of the farmers seem happy with the deals they got, provided they did their homework and didn't just sign the the first thing that got shoved under their nose.
 
Here in CNY there are many wind farms, some operating, some proposed. Opinions are divided. I have a "yes to wind turbines" sign in my yard and some folks up the road have a "no turbines" sign. I am within sight of a wind farm in Little Falls and it"s a beautiful sight (at night too, when you can see several dozen red aircraft warning lights blink at the same time).

My wife"s cousin lives right next to a wind farm over towards Madison. I"ve been there and taken a tour. There are no noise issues at all (and the ground is not strewn with finely chopped bald eagle remains either).

I am planning to have a wind turbine for my farm at some point in the future, just a matter of funds (isn"t it all...)

Bottom line, wind and sun are going to be here for a long, long time, why not take advantage of them?
 
We've gotten 5 1.65MW units built within 10 minutes of my house in the past year and I wish we could get more.
I went and parked under one of them (well, 100 yards off anyway) and with the sunroof in the car open I couldn't hear the blades at all if the car was running, even with the radio off.
These are the BIG windmills...
2 of them are at a community college, 1 at a highschool and 2 at a prison. All are to offset the utility use of each institution. The college now gets something like 90% of its power from wind and solar. The 2 at the prison aren't spinning yet, it seems like it takes them 2-3 months after the thing is up before it gets spinning, at least that was the case with the other 3.

We've got choices, oil and coal aren't getting any cheaper. It seems like a dammed fool thing to me to not be using wind if you've got it.

To the "storage" crowd, you don't store electricity, you burn it. Smart money would build wind/solar/hydro to create our base power and use fossil fuels for peak demand and to cover low wind/water and maintenance periods. Saves our oil which is basically irreplaceable by using stuff we'll essentially always have. There are some other storage techniques, we've got Northfield Mountain for instance where they chopped the top off the hill and built a reservoir. In low demand/price periods they pump water up the hill. In high demand/price periods the water runs turbines. Been working since the 50s.
 
Yep. They look like Sh!t on the prarie and will NEVER erase the carbon footprint created to manufacture, transport, install, and maintain them.

I DON"T LIKE wind power.

That being said, I have made thousands of $$$$ hauling rock to build three farms in this area.

One more is planned for this area, but nobody will buy the electricity. All plans have been put on hold, and investers are pulling out.

Google Wisconsin Wind Farms, and find out what rights you have give up to have one on your property. I will never allow any on my ground.
 
I've been told (off the record) payback for a power generating windmill is 89 years at current rates. Estimated life of a wind generator is 20 years. In other words, over four wind generators will be worn out (at current electricity rates) before the first one is paid for.
Wind generators in srevice (so I'm told) are having premature bearing failures adding to the cost.

If the information I've been provided is correct, wind generation is not economical. However, I think we should continue on a very limited basis to determine if it becomes economical in the future.
 
lots of them going up here,Ive not heard too much complaining.Farmers are making out like bandits for the most part,( ive heard up to $1800 a month on each one for a long term lease, but i would come nearer believing thats a year lease).from what ive seen here they are farming almost up to the base of them so their really not losing much land.truthfully,I dont even notice them anymore unless someone mentions them.Ive got some wind for sale if they need more places to put them!
 
They may be rewinding- they follow the wind, and after 4 rotations, the puter stops the turbine, and unwinds the cables from top to ground....then lets the turbine spin again.
 
Thats a big never...

I was thinking about how to calculate the carbon footprint, got as far as the trucking to move the pieces into place and realized its a very complicated set of calculations.

Personally I don't think it'll take that long for them to be a net positive, the big ones around here are 1.65MW thats MEGAwatts. My wife and I use around a megawatt hour every three months.

Now if they're financially viable on their own is a totally different story but as the cost of electricity continues to rise I think the ones built now will at some point pay for themselves.

Basically I don't think we can keep doing what we've been doing forever and think that it'll continue to work the same way.
 
When using fossil fuels if you use coal at all it has to be part of your base. You can't just turn a coal fired plant on and off. It can take up to 3 days to get one running. Natural gas can pretty much be turned off and on. Hydro definitely can be turned off and on. Wind and solar could be used to offset natural gas and hydro but not necessarily coal.

slim
 
Here in eastern ID we have two operational wind farms and a third was started this spring, the first one consisting of 43 1.2 MW units paid off the consruction costs in six months and the equipment costs in two years. the second wind farm cosists of 85 1.5 MW units and went online last year. the newest one should go online this fall. All the power generated is being sold to California.
 

How many of you realize that it takes only TWO (2) 18 wheelers to transport the raw material needed for a nuclear plant to generate electricity for 18 to 24 months? Those windmills will never be that efficient when comparing apples to apples.
 
Here is how it worked in Missouri. Enterprising young soul here spent a lot of time planning North Mo wind farms , "...to help the enviroment." A short time later , HIS BROTHER US CONGRESSMAN RUSS CARNAHAN and other Washington Politicians used our tax dollars to spike the windfarm with a 300 million dollar grant. Not a loan but a grant. Funny how that stuff works.Some enviroment , huh?
 
How many semi trucks fulla wind does it take to run the windmill?

Or how many MILLION tons of concrete does it take to build the nuke plant? How much rebar? How much water on an HOURLY basis?

Then once the uranium is done how much to store it?

I'm not anti-nuke either but honestly thats about the worst argument I've ever heard.
 
If those numbers were real everyone would have one - I know I would. There's no way they can pay for themselves, that's why the government pays people to install them by using other people's taxes.

I think your "numbers" are based on 100% capacity while a wind turbine usually operates at 20% or so.
 
In spite of the worst earthquake and tidal wave in 1000 years, Japans windfarms survived are a providing power to rebuild the damage

The japanese nuke plants ? Not so good, infact they are a great part of the damage and will continue to be big trouble for a long time, while never producing another watt of power.
Japans windfarms
 
There should be lots of those wind farms in Wash. DC. Lots of hot air and wind bags over in them parts.
 
Well, the pieces are made in China in part using stimulus money borrowed from China, then shipped here and proudly assembled at taxpayer expense from beginning to end. I wonder why the national labor relations board hasn't gone to China and told them what labor can and acn't build our parts?

Aint it America for you and me? Well, it used to be.

Mark
 
Typical nuke plant generates about 1 Billion Watts of power all day every day. Windmill generates about 350 Thousand Watts on a good day.

The nuke plant lasts about three times as long and spent fuel could be reprocessed if our President decided to do so (Jimmy Carter put a stop to it though).

True that the 40+ year old Japanese plant had a couple of design flaws, but those have been corrected in modern designs.
 
(quoted from post at 17:03:24 05/10/11) Typical nuke plant generates about 1 Billion Watts of power all day every day. Windmill generates about 350 Thousand Watts on a good day.

The nuke plant lasts about three times as long and spent fuel could be reprocessed if our President decided to do so (Jimmy Carter put a stop to it though).

True that the 40+ year old Japanese plant had a couple of design flaws, but those have been corrected in modern designs.
Click to expand...

Exactly.
 
(quoted from post at 13:40:02 05/10/11) How many semi trucks fulla wind does it take to run the windmill?

Or how many MILLION tons of concrete does it take to build the nuke plant? How much rebar? How much water on an HOURLY basis?

Then once the uranium is done how much to store it?

I'm not anti-nuke either but honestly thats about the worst argument I've ever heard.
Click to expand...

Did you ever see how many cubic yards of concrete and rebar it takes to anchor one of those windmills? There is nearly as much concrete below the ground as there is windmill above it.
 
on the news today it was said that a wind farm gets 2.5 cents per kilowatt from the U.S. gov for participating in green energy and if it was cut the wind farms would dry up almost immediately . don't you love a subsidy
 
(quoted from post at 17:03:24 05/10/11) Typical nuke plant generates about 1 Billion Watts of power all day every day. Windmill generates about 350 Thousand Watts on a good day.

The nuke plant lasts about three times as long and spent fuel could be reprocessed if our President decided to do so (Jimmy Carter put a stop to it though).

True that the 40+ year old Japanese plant had a couple of design flaws, but those have been corrected in modern designs.
Click to expand...
french company called AREVA is about to start constructing a fuel reprocessing plant here in Idaho, construction should begin sometime next spring if not earlier.
 
Your wrong on that idea that all the parts are made in China. We have 3 plants within 200 miles that make the turbine blades. A new plant was built within 15 miles for the manufacture of the towers. I have a lease option on land I own. The plan is for 2 MW generators. Payment is supposed to be $5000 per year with a 2% increase annually when it gets built. From what I hear, those who didn't get a lease are the ones against them and those with one of course like the idea. All you have to do is take a cross country road trip and see all the towers that are out there and you might not think that they are going away anytime soon. At $2 million per tower for the ones they are talking about on my land, they would have to have a payback plan or there wouldn't be any investors throwing their money out like that.
 
But then again, there's no hazardous materials permits for a wind turbine either. On a bad day the turbine would just fall down. Hate to think of a bad day with a nuke plant. (not that I am against either)
 
Hundreds around here. They wouldn't be built without consumers subsidizing them.Then lets talk carbon offset credits.
Environmental-Green types want them UNTILL they have to see them from their own home or cottage.
 
My brother-in-law lives right next to a wind farm over in Montfort WI. There is one tower a hundred feet from his property line. He did not get one dime. His house is worthless now. He has tried to sell it for five years. If you are out side all you hear is the WOP WOP WOP of the blades. All of his wild life is gone too. No squirrels or song birds. They don"t like the noise. So you guys that say they are quite must not have any hearing left.

If they ever try to put one up near me I will spend every dime I have to stop these monstrosities from being built. If you want green energy then You should have to have one in your front yard.

If they want to build a new coal or nuke plant I will sell them what ground they need at market value. Would not bother me one bit. I have slept right next to the reactor on a sub a few time never knew it was there.
 
(quoted from post at 21:13:47 05/10/11) My brother-in-law lives right next to a wind farm over in Montfort WI. There is one tower a hundred feet from his property line. He did not get one dime. His house is worthless now. He has tried to sell it for five years. If you are out side all you hear is the WOP WOP WOP of the blades. All of his wild life is gone too. No squirrels or song birds. They don"t like the noise. So you guys that say they are quite must not have any hearing left.

If they ever try to put one up near me I will spend every dime I have to stop these monstrosities from being built. If you want green energy then You should have to have one in your front yard.

If they want to build a new coal or nuke plant I will sell them what ground they need at market value. Would not bother me one bit. I have slept right next to the reactor on a sub a few time never knew it was there.
Click to expand...

Now that right there IS the TRUTH. You could not have said it any better.
 
Want to see a windfarm nightmare? Go to Mars Hill Maine.Any Mainers in that area? If there are you already know what a mess they have.
 
Not to mention, Governments are paying some wind farms to NOT produce power, as it's too volitile to the grid. Ups and downs in power supply is generally not a good thing, and neither are these wind turbines.

In 10 or 20 years everyone will see this mess for the (bad) joke that it is when they are back out in those fields tearing them down, or worse yet, leaving them to rot for lack of funds to remove.
Story, Paid to not produce.
 
I really don't give a rat's hind end if it's economically viable or practical or aesthetically pleasing or whatever.

Farmers have been getting the shaft from the American public for decades. Your cheap food has cost many farmers their livelihoods over the years, and the ones that survived, operated hand-to-mouth for a long long time. It's about time farmers cashed in on SOMETHING.

If they gotta drive around the base of a windmill, but they're doing it in a much-needed new tractor, boo-hoo.

There are three things certain in life: Death. Taxes. Wasteful government spending. The government is going to throw money away. There is no stopping it. You can tea party, wail and gnash your teeth, vote different people in...

They're all idiots, and they're going to waste money. Wouldn't you rather they waste it on farmers who really need it and will do something productive with it?

With welfare, you're just throwing good money after bad. Give it to farmers, they pay their bills, buy new equipment, create jobs...

Wind will always blow, and if the "climate change/global warming" crowd is right, it's going to get windier as time goes on.
 
(quoted from post at 07:58:46 05/10/11) Here in Washingtons Kittitas valley we are practically surrounded by them. From my driveway I can see the Wildhorse Wind Farm 16 miles away to the east. To the west and North more are being put up. I don"t believe they are economically viable yet and they do not provide a storage capacity for unused power. I had looked at putting a small one up here at home to help lower my power bill. The pay off just wasn"t there.
Click to expand...

I think it's pretty windy at your place a good part of the year. You could benefit from a 4k investment.

PS, how's the sledding in your area? Find any good places out of bounds?
 
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