How wind farms are supercharging the economies of rural America

[rcjordan]

https://www.fastcompany.com/90837666/how-wind-farms-are-supercharging-the-economies-of-rural-america?partner=rss

[grnidone]

There are HUNDREDS of red blinking lights at night on the horizon from all the turbines.  And they are all blinking at the exact same time, which I always found a bit amazing.

My sister and I have some property next to interstate that I think would be a good fit for wind.

[ergophobe]

Just make sure they are not too close to your house
https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/infrastructure/a42622565/wind-turbines-falling-over/

[rcjordan]

We have 110 turbines here --with synchronized lighting.  Each takes about 1 acre out of crop production (not much) and the mega-farmers easily work around them.

>interstate

There has been a growing movement and legislation in recent years by local, rural governments across the state to force renewables to out-of-sight locations.

I'm told that horses get skittish even a mile or so away --the owners think it may be ground vibration.  This may be mostly anti-turbine b.s. though, I've not seen much authoritative info on this.

What I have seen is 'bird kills.'  Again, I wonder just how bad the issue really is.

Wanted (by scientists): Dead birds and bats, felled by renewables | Ars Technica
https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/01/wanted-by-scientists-dead-birds-and-bats-felled-by-renewables/

[BoL]

>bird kills

https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms2380

Here we conduct a systematic review and quantitatively estimate mortality caused by cats in the United States. We estimate that free-ranging domestic cats kill 1.3–4.0 billion birds and 6.3–22.3 billion mammals annually.

>economy

One proposed not far from me intends to pay £5K/MW of installed capacity towards community. I worked it out to be around £400/y per household in the catchment area. Still only works out to 5p/kWh, domestic rate at the moment here with all the government top slicing is closer to 50p.