Wind farm problems.

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Tanis143

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Ok, I can see the blades not being recycled (yet) but why do we have to scrap the whole tower when the blades wear out? That article acts like the towers are torn down instead of just replacing the blades.
 

kirk1978

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I didn't realize those things only had a 20 year life span. That isn't long plenty of those monstrosities down in Southern OK from I35 to the west.

From what I have read: It cost basically $1 million to install one and its payback is over a 20 year period but the upkeep over that 20 years is about the same as the cost to install it, so it never pays for itself. (I don't know this to be fact but have read several articles saying this)
 

RickN

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Ok, I can see the blades not being recycled (yet) but why do we have to scrap the whole tower when the blades wear out? That article acts like the towers are torn down instead of just replacing the blades.

The generator wears out too.
 

Okie4570

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Wind Turbine leases 101, and just a heads up after hearing the stories from landowners.......the wind companies will just flat lie right to your face. Have some friends north of Enid which is part of the flight area for Vance AFB trainers. The wind company is still battling the DOD on agreements, restrictions and approvals to build, but they're telling landowners that it's a done deal with the DOD, it's not even close according to "those in the know" with the AFB.

https://www.wind-watch.org/documents/five-questions-to-ask-before-signing-a-wind-energy-lease/
 

TwoForFlinching

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From what I have read: It cost basically $1 million to install one and its payback is over a 20 year period but the upkeep over that 20 years is about the same as the cost to install it, so it never pays for itself. (I don't know this to be fact but have read several articles saying this)

I had always heard that too. So one night, bored, I googled the crap out of it. I read, consistently in peer reviewed studies, that on average, the output generates, on average, enough electricity to pay back the carbon offset is anywhere from 2-8 months, depending on the location. That's the energy it produces compared to the actual energy that was used to produce the physical turbine and installation. Actual cost recouperation takes much longer and depends entirely on the average steady-wind in any particular location. In windy areas - ie - plains states, coastal regions, seaborne wind farms obtain that cost payback is 5-6 years. In lesser steady-wind areas, the consistent locales mentioned across articles referred the interior non-coastal Northeast where the cost payback can take up to that 20 years.

My cousin put a 3kw wind turbine in his back yard in SWOK. Took him 13 months to recoup that investment. He still has to pay the electric company during Summer, but in Fall and Winter, he did get a check. While energy producers in Oklahoma are, by law, no longer required to pay you for generating electric back to the grid, his municipal power coop still does for now, sort of. His average billing is $16/month.
 

dennishoddy

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Wind power is a joke. I worked for OG&E for years and watched them online while generating and when not generating. Wind power was forced on OGE by the Corporation Commision. Guess where some of the Corporation Commissioners went to work when their terms expired. T Boon Pickins is a huge advocate of wind power in Oklahoma. His lobby is partially responsible.
We were approached by a wind company to put towers on our property in Grant County. The land man gave us an offer that was as he said what your neighbor got and produced the contracts to prove it.
What we saw was no clause to cover environmental spills, additional easement encroachments like additional lines ran into their easements and so on. Our Lawyer looked at the documents and just shook his head. No wording for removal after delisting from the grid because of obsolescence and no wording for returning the land to its original purpose which is farming.
Lawyer entered the wording into the contract and we took it back to the land man. He took it and returned it signed a week later with no issues. The wind companies will leave monuments on the prairie if the land owners don't protect their rights.
 

GlockPride

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I can almost read that Dennis. You’ll have to change the color a little to get it to blend in.

I’m not anti-wind or solar, just don’t think the technology is there yet. Obviously, if it made monetary sense then the government would have never had to subsidize it. Once governments start throwing money at something, you know it mustn’t be a good plan otherwise capitalists would have already been on it.

These towers are a blight and stain on Oklahoma’s beauty!

The wife and I were discussing the other day about the days these all stop working. And I said, I doubt many of the landowners have thought about tear down or land remediation. It is going to be a problem for decades, or at least through my child’s lifetime.
 

Tanis143

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Wind power is a joke. I worked for OG&E for years and watched them online while generating and when not generating. Wind power was forced on OGE by the Corporation Commision. Guess where some of the Corporation Commissioners went to work when their terms expired. T Boon Pickins is a huge advocate of wind power in Oklahoma. His lobby is partially responsible.
We were approached by a wind company to put towers on our property in Grant County. The land man gave us an offer that was as he said what your neighbor got and produced the contracts to prove it.
What we saw was no clause to cover environmental spills, additional easement encroachments like additional lines ran into their easements and so on. Our Lawyer looked at the documents and just shook his head. No wording for removal after delisting from the grid because of obsolescence and no wording for returning the land to its original purpose which is farming.
Lawyer entered the wording into the contract and we took it back to the land man. He took it and returned it signed a week later with no issues. The wind companies will leave monuments on the prairie if the land owners don't protect their rights.

Yeah, but isn't true with all companies that they will screw you unless you read the fine print (or in this case the lack of print)?

I'm not sold on wind energy, personally. I think for a single person the mix of solar and wind could be a great way to go off the grid in a rural area, but as a way to power our nation's grid? Nope. Right now the best power plants for power produced + environment are NG power plants. The down side is it still produces pollution. But until fission or some other energy source is discovered we still need to rely on FF power.
 

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