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Wind Power Development

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WyomingRancher

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Hello, I was wondering if anyone could offer any advice on wind development. Many people in our area have been contacted by various wind developing companies, and we are wondering what we'd be getting into if we got involved with them. Of course the companies promise money, but usually that comes at a cost to the landowner. I would appreciate any advice if someone on this board knows about wind development. Thanks!
 
There is a lot of wind developed back east in the vicinity of DC, but that doesn't add much to solutions of any dilemma. Sorry, don't mean to lead this thought astray. I have wondered about those wind chargers, but have never pursued it. It would be interesting to see what people who have them think about it.
 
couple guys have put one up to power their own place, then you sell the excess off to the power company.

you get one of those wind farms going, and I have heard they are one huge noise problem.....
 
we have several big wind farms here. Mostly closer to the foothills than I am. I bought a couple of horses from a guy that lives within 1/4 mile of about 50 of the big ones. I have to say I never heard a sound commin from them the few times I was there. They have been having problems with bats gettin killed by them, which doesn't help our mosquito problem any.
 
They are a pretty neat deal. I have been up to that one near Ellensburg and they are the biggest ones used inland. Course the off shore ones are alot bigger.

They are noisy when you are right under them, but when you are off from them, they are not that noisy.

I guess the landowner gets a percentage on the money created from the "wind-use" on their ground. I think that is pretty much how they pay you is on a percentage of the power created, in dollars from the utility companies that manage the power use. Does that make sense!!!!!?????!!!!! Looks funny to me???

I also have a friend down between Walla Walla and Tri-Cities that has several on her place. She runs cattle around them and they don't get bothered by the machines. She gets paid on a percentage on them, and I think does real well from it.

If you get involved just make sure you hire a lawyer or consultant that has dealt with them before.

They are pretty neat deal really, they may look like an eye sore for a while, but then they blend into the scenary after a while.
 
Thanks for everyone's input. I think the developers are just trying to tie up the wind rights for now, and hoping transmission lines are built to get the power out of this state. Transmission is the main problem.

I agree they change the viewshed, but I would much rather see wind towers than housing developments. Subdivisions are ruining this part of SE Wyoming in my opinion.
 
Companies here were offering $10 an acre to tie up land if their developments ever moved ahead.

The deals when development was immenent has been about 2.5% of the gross.

Our power is deregulated and sold into a pool. The price changes hourly, much like a stock market situation.

Average wise, the price per kwh has been 4-6 cents.

The big turbines need 30% generation capacity to make them pay, they are getting over 50% here.

A 1 Mw machine would generate 12 megawatt hours per day at that rate.

1 Mw is 1000 kw so 12 Mw is 12000 kw at 4 cents is $480 gross. 2.5% of $480 is $12.

The turbines at the McBride Lake project are .660 Vestas and the turbines at the Soderglen project are 1.8 Mw GE machines.

There are 115 at McBride Lake, and I believe 50 at Soderglen. Max capacity 115x .66 = 75.9 and 50 x 1.8 = 90

Vestas has been testing a 3 Mw turbine and has a project called Macleod Flats in the works for 22 of the monster turbines.

The deal about the bats is a myth. They found a few dead around a tower, but have never brought any hard evidence forward.

I can't hear any sound from the turbines, neighbors that live within a mile say they hear a swoosh sound, but the wind is usually louder than the turbines.
 
They squeal when something is out of alignment, like any machine.

The early California prototype windfarm used small diameters blades at high rates of revolution. They were nicknamced "Cuisinarts for birds".

The "bat thing" was in WV. That was in a particularly bat-rich part of the Appalachian Mtns. Around 2000 dead bats on that farm. Something around 45 turbines.


Badlands
 
Ive heard about the bats serveral times on the local news about the wind turbines by pincher creek. They can't figure out why the bats are attracted to them. here's a link to one of the current storys/research projects if you want to see for yourself.

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2006/09/08/bats-turbines.html
 
I have heard they paid 1800 per windmill per year a few years ago and I think I heard some were getting 5000 per year per turbine. But the 5000 plus a rate for the electricity I believe the farmer owned his own. It has been a good extra income and they just farm around them.
 
We have a farn about 15 miles as the crow flies away from us.. Very strange looking actually.. ONe of the local highschools actually has one turbine on its property. Pays for the electricty for the school and they sell the excess to the power company. You can see those suckers from miles away. It is becoming a big thing around here with only a few problems noted so far.

1) the not in my back yard folks are complaiing that they are an eye sore. Not the folks who own the land, not most of the farmers, but the city folks who have moved out to the country. The same ones who complain about hog manure and cattle smells and dust from farming that has been going on for 100 years before they moved here..

2) TV/radio reception. The one place, and they don't know why, all the locals lost all reception on their radios and TV's when the towers went on line. The generator company ended up paying to put Directtv or dishnetwork on all the homes and agreed to pay the bills for x amount of years..

There are about 4-5 more that I can think of that are being propsed right now. Some athat are proposed will just be giant wind parks but we have pretty good wind out here. We have even though atout putting a small one up here on the farm to cover our own costs until we figured it would probably take 20 years to pay for itself.
 
The big turbines installed today are far different from the small 45kva ones installed in the California tax break fiasco.

The cost is also different, about $3 million per turbine installed.

I watched the Pincher video on the news about the bats. They had a sonar listening device and heard thousands of bats but could only find 1 dead one. They just said well usually they are dropping from the sky we don't know why they aren't tonight. :roll:

Currently the price of electricity doesn't make wind power feasible, but the Soderglen project was financed by Nexen Energy for the green credits.

Canadian tax law changed as well allowing losses of a corporation to flow to investors. The tax relief on investment is what some are making their money from instead of the power sold.

This link takes you to the Alberta power pool and you can find the generation of the wind farms.

http://ets.powerpool.ab.ca/
 
we have been thinking about that for a couple of years the problem here though is connecting to the grid isn't possible as the power company needs to be able to shut the thing down and cant shut down private power sources.
 
The big wind turbines are set up so that if the grid power fails they shut down. All turbines have to be installed this way for the safety of line workers.

The real trouble with connecting to the grid is that transmission lines are too small to carry added capacity. The company that owns the transmission lines charges a fair bit to access their system. I believe it is 2.5 cents / kwh of power sent.

With break even costs of the turbine at 6-7 cents on 30% generation and an additional 2.5 cents in transmission costs and power averaging 4 cents the wind better be pretty consistant.

If net metering were allowed in Alberta I would seriously look at a turbine big enough to run this place. With having to sell to the utility and buy back at a higher rate to pay for transmission, it doesn't pay.

A guy known for good work for off grid situations or green power people, is erhardelectric.com (I think that is his site.) He claims about $30k will run most small farms off grid, but he uses solar as much as wind because the wind doesn't blow everyday, but the sun shines.
 
Our problem around here is the sun doesn't shine everyday.. We can go weeks with overcast during the winter. There is still some solor power generated but not a lot... I suppose overlapping them would be a plan but we really don't have many days that won't turn a turbine...
 
Have one established wind farm about 40 miles away, nothing bad said about it yet, still quite new though. Another one is on the drawing board in southcentral ND, sounds fairly big(120 turbines). Everybdy is excited about it, sounds like payment is $3500-$4000 per turbine, plus % of the energy generated.
IL Rancher---I am familiar with the one you are talking about, up near Paw Paw if my memory serves me correct. Have a daughter who actually lives in Arlington, married to a Sundberg, they have Angus operation near Triumph. Small world.
 
Nope, but the one in Paw Paw isn't far away.. The one I am talking about is South of Princeton near a town called Tiskilwa (That has to be spelled wrong).

My family actually settled near Paw Paw back in 1800ish after moving from the Wyoming valley in Penn. The township around Paw Paw is called Wyoming township for the folks.. That was a long,long time ago but it was strange when we moved here learning about all the connecitons we have to the area.

Arlington is not to far away from here but Triumph is getting out there, east of 39... Both are near Mendota which is about an hour from here.. Looking at the area I have probably driven by that herd at least once or twice, lol.
 
Solar will generate even in cloudy conditions. Direct sunlight is not required.

Wind chargers need a good breeze to generate power. As the speed of the wind doubles, the power it has is cubed. Except for some offshore windfarms, the generation capacity here is the highest in the world.

Wyoming is close, some of the individual turbines might be better than here, but whole farms not yet.

Just because a turbine is turning, doesn't mean it is generating much electricity.

I think this is exciting technology, but there is lots of room to improve.
 

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