landowners and onshore wind farms

If you are a landowner, and your lands have good wind resources, you may be interested in leasing them to wind farm developers, or in erecting one or more wind turbines yourself, if you are able to arrange $1.000.000 or more per turbine...

Wind Turbine and tower Landowners and local communities are common co-partners of energy companies. Good windy sites are crucial to wind developers and it may be easy to interest them, if the site is an exceptional one, with an high average wind speed: a site with a 10% higher annual wind speed will produce 20% or more extra power...

Wind speed and turbulence

Wind farms and mega-wind turbines demand not only sites with high wind speeds, but also winds with non-turbulent patterns.

See: Wind speed and wind maps

The property size

Wind farms demand relatively large properties. Turbines need to be widely spaced in order not to cause turbulence to each other. Mega turbines must be sited sufficiently apart, say, 2,500 feet (750 m) apart.

The footprint of their towers is impressive (16 feet/5m in diameter, base foundations over 300 cubic yards of concrete and access service roads of 16 feet/5m width are common) and revealing of the areas they involve.

Farming and wind systems

However, wind systems do not necessary collide with farming. After a wind farm has been built, most of the land can still be used for farming: 98% or more. The towers and the foundations take up some amount of land, but just that. The blades do not disturb farming, since they are well above the ground in order to allow better wind speeds.

Leasing the wind rights

Leasing the wind rights of a site is often very profitable. The annual income from a single mega wind turbine can attain values of $3,000 or more. Wind rights amounting $50 to $80 per acre are typical.

Pre-conditions

A wind farm viability depends on several elements. The wind speed and constancy is the main one, but there are others:

- Proximity and easy access to sub-stations and high-voltage power lines. A too remote place, too far from electrical infrastructures, is much less viable.

– a close market for electricity, and eventual state incentives to renewables and favorable legislation.

For guidance on legal issues you may look for information in Windustry (in USA) and Wind Systems & L egal requirements.