Anyone live near a windfarm?

[square1]

I also don't mind the lights at night. Actually find it relaxing,

Do they flash to the beat of Bowie's Fame? Ours do!

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

My folks have some adjacent to their farm...the closest is about a half mile and you can hear its "swooshing" on their front porch. Personally I think they are an eyesore. At night the horizon is just a sea of red flashing LED lights now.

Used to be a pretty and pristine farm area and peaceful hunting land. Now it looks very industrial. I wouldn't buy land near them... I might get it cheap, but have a hard time selling it

 

[HawkinsHollow]

These farms are all over Michigan's thumb, they are an eye sore. You're a proponent of renewable resources, what about the projected 700k + tons of blades that cannot be recycled and end up in land fills over the next decade or so? They take up space both while operating and in the mountains of landfill sites.

Your concerns have already been addressed.

Carbon Rivers Makes Wind Turbine Blade Recycling and Upcycling a Reality With Support From DOE

Company Commercializes the Only Currently-Available Technology that can Recycle Fiberglass From Decommissioned Wind Turbine Blades

www.energy.gov

There are pros and cons to everything. We need to start looking towards a future where fossil fuels are not viable for a number of different reasons. Just because you are going to be dead and gone when that day arrives doesn't mean it is not a worthy quest.

 

[oldnslo]

Interesting comment made by a poster on being a proponent of renewable energy but not in my backyard. That seems to be an all to common issue where it is OK in someone else’s backyard and they suffer while I can feel good.

 

[oldnslo]

Whatever the other pros and cons are related to windmills, they don’t necessarily take farmland out of production. A good example is the Texas panhandle around Amarillo. Tens of thousands of acres of land are farmed for wheat and cotton, all of which also do double duty as wind farms that stretch on for miles.

They may not take the whole field out of production like solar panels do but if each tower takes an acre that land is out of production.

I have farmed around power poles going across a field and they are inconvenient especially with row crop like corn since you harvest the rows vs wheat field you can cut in any direction.

I can’t blame the farmers IF repeat IF they were given the choice to participate since it would provide a known income for a period of time. You don’t get that growing crops.

 

[dodge man]

I am retired as a land surveyor and worked on a 60 unit wind farm the last year before I retired mostly doing construction staking. For the power they generate they take up less farm ground than solar. There is a road going in and just a circle around the turbine. During construction the impact is larger, there is a lot of traffic. As I recall the one I worked on had two hundred workers some days.

My personal opinion, the only issue is the visual. Shadow flicker and the noise is non existent unless you are close. The one I worked on isn’t lighted at night unless a radar unit detects an airplane in the area. After it was built I drove to nearby homes and I just couldn’t hear them.

My opinion on them in general has soured on them. The one I worked has had problems. The main bearings needing replaced, one blade ruined by a lighting strike, another one caught fire and burned the house out at the top. I think 20 of the 60 have had problems, maybe more.

They advance slowly sometimes. The one I worked on was about 15 years from planning and signing landowners to being built.

 

[HawkinsHollow]

Interesting comment made by a poster on being a proponent of renewable energy but not in my backyard. That seems to be an all to common issue where it is OK in someone else’s backyard and they suffer while I can feel good.

That's me, Mr. NIMBY!!

 

[jyoutz]

They may not take the whole field out of production like solar panels do but if each tower takes an acre that land is out of production.

I have farmed around power poles going across a field and they are inconvenient especially with row crop like corn since you harvest the rows vs wheat field you can cut in any direction.

I can’t blame the farmers IF repeat IF they were given the choice to participate since it would provide a known income for a period of time. You don’t get that growing crops.

From casual observation, the crops grow very near the tower base and the towers don’t use an acre of ground.

 

[HawkinsHollow]

Interesting comment made by a poster on being a proponent of renewable energy but not in my backyard. That seems to be an all to common issue where it is OK in someone else’s backyard and they suffer while I can feel good.

But to be fair, we all have a little bit of Mr. NIMBY in us. You sound like someone that touts the benefits of burning fossil fuels, but I highly doubt you would like to live next to an oil refinery would you? What about a mountain top removal coal mine? Or would you let them put a gas pipeline through your property?

 

[gsganzer]

I got a call back from a county commissioner and it's his understanding the solar project replaced the wind. He was approached by the wind company about leasing his land early on and he declined. Some of his neighbors did sign on but were later notified that the wind project changed to solar.

I called the energy company a bunch of times and it's just automated and dumps you to voicemail. Of course, they never call you back. However, one of the calls, I selected "Landowner looking to lease" and I immediately got a live person. Funny how that works. I asked the person if the windfarm portion of the project was still active and he went and checked. He came back on and told me he only saw the solar as being active. We've been doing AI searches and it only refers to the solar part of the project, but it's common for different assets of a project to get sold to other entities as they progress, further complicating the research process.

The wind farms have really lost favor in Oklahoma, with a nearby project in McIntosh County being scrapped due to public opposition. However, I need something definitive to put this to rest or it's a deal breaker. We have 7 more days to get our answers.

From my research, the FAA filing listed the proposed turbines to be 650' tall. Probably 500' tower plus the blade length. These aren't something you can just turn your back to and ignore they're there. That's the issue I have with wind power. I'm all for land-owner rights, but this isn't the same as someone painting their house an ugly color or having broke down cars on their front lawn. This is something that people see for 10's- 100's of miles, 24/7/365, day or night.

What's ironic, is I work in the power generation industry commissioning simple-cycle and combined-cycle power plants.