Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
What is your opinion on wind farms? Seems like a lot fo these are popping up these days and i am looking into maybe starting a few up myself. So, i thought i would gage everyone's personal views on them. I ahve done some extensive research so please feel free to give me your honest opinion or question you might have.
The first time I saw them was in California, lo these many years ago . I think they are a great idea. Anytime we can harness the power of nature to produce energy it is a good thing.
They are getting ready to open an Ethanol plant near me, but I am wondering where they are going to sell the fuel. None of the gas stations have E-85 pumps ......
ORRINO, My family and I live on Interstate 20 in TX. We see big trucks carrying windmill blades (I think) from time to time. I haven't investigated, but figured that if they are clean energy, than great! Can you tell me more about them? I'd be interested in hearing more. I believe there are some wind farms being built in the area... Isn't that a good thing?
Orrino, I think they're great. I live in SD and they have started several up here and there's plenty of wind to generate the power they're looking for. There's been a bit of controversy over birds flying into them. Then there were problems about how to actually move the power to where it's needed. Now the naysayers are saying they interfere with radar. Personally, I think they're a very good deal. It may work totally different in Texas, but there's a company in Minn. and one in Calif. and I'm sure there are others. They pay for the windmills and pay a very good amount per year to set them on your land so you're lucky if they chose your area. You can still farm around them. One of the few qualifications is that you need to have a sub-station within 3(?) miles of the windmill. Maybe you could enlighten us more on how you feel about them and the pros and cons since you've studied about them.
I have an area with a substation within a few miles.
Pros:
They are clean, no fossil fuel in running them, just what you have to have to build them.
Require little maintenance
Production tax credit, big incentive
no fuel required
Cons:
Expensive start up. Estimated to cost on the order of 2-3 million per tower. roughly
Peoples opinion on them is varies.
Some people view them as eye sores.
Misconception on bird kills (tho some evidence exists that supports that the older farms do indeed kill raptors, but ona na average much lower than what a normal building of that size would)
ORRINO, My family and I live on Interstate 20 in TX. We see big trucks carrying windmill blades (I think) from time to time. I haven't investigated, but figured that if they are clean energy, than great! Can you tell me more about them? I'd be interested in hearing more. I believe there are some wind farms being built in the area... Isn't that a good thing?
Well, take for example what happened in corpuschristi, where a company is proposing to build a very large offshore wind farm about 8-10 miles out into the gulf. People were rather unreceptive to the project and many thought that the windmills would be hazards to migrating birds. This is a major hurdle that many farmers are being confronted with.
There was an article in the Economist a couple of weeks ago about the wind farm industry in Texas. I didn’t know this, but Texas is second only to California to the total number of wind farms in the country.
Anyway, the main article was about Texas companies thinking about entering the business of manufacturing the actual components of the turbines. Almost the entire turbine in now manufactured in Germany and I thought it was great that domestic companies are going to be entering the industry. An increase in manufacturing jobs here in the U.S. along with providing help to the environment. I think it’s great!
I support anything that uses natural energy like the wind! People may say that it is a hazard to birds, but isn't the pollution we put into the air through the use of other fuels hazardous to all living creatures? I also think that the windmill farms are not an eyesore, they look almost artsy - very cool!
Well, im glad that i made this post, people seem to be very warm to the idea. Now, what if one of these was in yur backyard (so to speak, not literally)?
Clipper liberty is a us based manufacturing company getting in on the market now. They should jsut now be starting up. If you guys have heard of any other turbine manufactuerers in texas, drop me a line please.
Thumbs up on the windmills. Anything to get us away from the oil in the Middle East. I will tell you one of the best places to put it would be Amarillo. That place is almost always windy plus lots of flat open space. Good Luck on your endeavor!
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
. I think they are a great idea. Anytime we can harness the power of nature to produce energy it is a good thing.
......
Thumbs Up
