Wind Tubines (Judith Gap: lease, crime, home)

[Warsaw]

Hi Everyone,
I was wondering if anyone lived close to wind turbines and how they were effected by them? Thanks

[Rickers]

I've never seen any of those big "power farm" turbines that some areas have. Wouldn't they get all iced up in winter ?

[rangerider]

I haven't lived next to any, but have traveled quite a lot in the country they exist in. I guess I'm prejudiced in favor of wind power - I've always thought it was a pretty smart idea for energy generation. They've come a long way technology-wise in the last few years, and now the debate seems to be largely about the aesthetics of the facilities, with a couple of sub-debates concerning wildlife impact. Personally, I would rather be in the middle of a wind farm than next to cooling towers or hydroelectric dams; we have to get our electricity from somewhere, and I think if we all had grown up with wind generation we probably wouldn't even notice it. As for the wildlife angle, after having traveled extensively in Yellowstone for over twenty years as a commercial driver, day and night, I don't see much down there being overly bothered by the huge influx of machinery and people. Most animals have had many, many generations to become acclimated to the noise and silly behavior. Only occasionally do they take revenge...

As a kid, I was always enthralled with the windmills and windchargers on my grandparents farms in the sandhills of Nebraska. Guess it was just something about all this work being done using a power source that was both fairly predictable and inexhaustible. I don't think it would bother me a bit if suddenly it was announced that I would have new 300' neighbors. I also think that with time there will be new designs that mitigate the impact on the "viewshed".

Until we learn to be smarter users, we will need ever increasing sources of electricity. It never fails to amaze me how the same people who are raising a stink about the visual qualities of wind farms most likely are the same ones wanting their nighttime environment lit up like a Vegas strip. We have, in the Gallatin valley area, anyway, an obscene amount of light pollution (i.e., waste) in the name of (largely unrealized) crime and unnecessary home lighting. Not to mention a pile of wasted usage on electronics not turned off when not in use. And I'm not even gonna start in on all the hot water heaters, drying lights in bathrooms, and even bluegrass lawns that require ten times as much well pump usage as smart landscaping. And if you think I'm just sitting here in my Birkenstocks drinking herbal tea, think again - my resume is about the furtherest you can get from that angle. My great-uncle was understood full well about smart land stewardship on his place. During the horror of the Dust Bowl days, his sandhills ranch suffered a little but stayed productive and healthy compared to his neighbors who used their land up to the point it technically was "dead". To me, smart usage and safe generation is the answer; I'm not sure, however, our society is showing signs of wanting to work toward that goal.

Guess that was more like $.25 worth -

[imbobbbb]

i dont see 'how you would be affected by them'?there are a whole bunch of them a little north of where my relatives live in harlowton,between harlowton and judith gap.they dont make any noise to speak of and i guess make sense if they can generate enough power to cover their cost.

[ElkHunter]

I don't think they affect us other then the scenery. Course, they're a heck of a lot better then looking at the smokestack of a coal fired power plant, or the steam coming off the big nuclear power plant.

If you can put up with the view (I don't like it), it's a win win situation.

[Timberwolf232]

I flew over the ones in Judith Gap last year. They were pretty neat looking. I circled around for a bit and saw some of the old missile silos in the area. I think they used the old tunnels to run cabling for the wind turbines. (Just a speculation I don't know if they did that for sure...)

[charliep3]

In Huron County Michigan where there is a wind farm invasion getting started, one farm just started producing, one under construction, 10's of thousands of acres leased by the local utility company who intends a massive project spread all over the county and much of it close to the 90 miles of Lake Huron shoreline in the county.

Huron County has a substantial value of residential property, especially along the lake. Everytime there is wind farm news about the county in Detroit papers people think they want to go up and see them and they think, Huron County is NOT a place to buy residential or recreational property. This will hurt existing residential property owners severely.

There is nothing green about wind power except the federal tax dollars used to subsidize it. The government, wind farm investors, and landowner/landlords are an axis of evil, pretending to be green while lining their pockets with taxpayer money.

Already there are several landowners getting checks from the first project who regret their decision, according to neighbors who are not getting checks. There will be many more like them. In the mean time the destruction of property value, life savings, etc. will continue.

If you like green so much then you take the property value hit yourself or stop pretending you are doing good for the world by supporting something that hurts more people than it helps.

[my54ford]

If you live next to one the woop,woop,woop sound will drive you nuts slowly but surely. Plus the real truth is they only run at best 38% of the time. If your ever on life support you better hope the Hospitol doesn't relay on the flippin things........

[JetMech72]

I haven't been to the Montana wind farms and I'm not exactly sure where they were manufactured (although, I think I heard they were made in Texas and shipped to Montana). But there is an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal about Suzlon Energy Ltd. in India, a company that exports a majority of their windmills to the U.S. Well, it seems that their large turbine blades are cracking in service and becoming quite a problem. I just hope the Judith Gap wind farm doesn't rely on India imported turbine blades.

[AlleninAlaska]

The town I just moved from up here in Alaska is getting ready to install 4 of them. A couple of villages in this area have been using them for a couple of years now. The only persons saving any money is the electic utility that has them installed. It saves them a little bit on the cost of fuel that they use too run their diesel generators. The people that are paying for this electricity on a monthly basis are only saving about 3 cents per KWH used. Just reading the Big Horn County News it looks like there is a company pushing for a wind farm there and in Yellostone County. I will be moving too Big Horn County in 10 days.