Down The Middle - May 3, 2005 - Printable Version
- Hey!!! They're Stealing My Wind!
by Down the Middle Life in Western Oklahoma provides few guarantees...but there are a couple of things you can always count on. The Winters are cold, the Summers are hot, and Spring and Fall fly by before you can say "It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood". The wages are low, the politics are Right Wing, the prairie pollen is devastatingly allergenic and "Meth" is the drug of choice, if you don't include what authorities wrongly label the state's greatest cash crop, marijuana.
The fact is, the prairie has always been a land of struggle. I still marvel at the toughness exhibited by the early settlers of this region and the unwavering tenacity of those who stayed on through all the hard times, especially the Depression/Dust Bowl years.
Some of the folks in northeastern Oklahoma did a little better. They hit big oil early on, and Tulsa literally became known as the "Oil Capitol of the World". http://www.okmoga.com/tour-key.html#key5 Although western Oklahoma had a few small pockets of the black gold, it was the boom of the "Anadarko Basin", in the late 70's and early 80's, that brought sizable, deep well, gas finds...and the "energy dollars" that came with them...to this part of the state. http://www.okmoga.com/tour-key.html#key17 My step-grandfather (in fact, my only "real" grandfather) actually shared a buggy with Frank Phillips (Phillips Petroleum), traveling throughout western Oklahoma seeking mineral leases, and he even met Howard Hughes, back in the day. He once told my grandmother, "Someday, there would be "rigs" as far as you could see." Apparently, his vision was 20/20. (Unfortunately, he lost his business to his unscrupulous son and wound up broke, leaving absolutely no "oil money", for...little ole me.) Although there is still steady exploration for the fossil fuels that lie beneath our wheat lands and pastures, there has been yet another energy discovery that has taken the plains by storm (if you'll excuse the pun)...The wind!
I really shouldn't say that the wind is a new discovery. I, myself, have known about the wind for some time. In fact, winter or summer, spring or fall, the one constant on the prairie is that the wind is gonna blow...and blow, it will! I was never bothered by it as a kid...but as I began to grow, creating more wind resistance with every inch, I realized what a bother the wind could be. I'll admit, I need that little Summer breeze to cool me off on those "hundred degree" days of July and August, and it does help keep the insects off the barbecue...but damn! That wind chill factor, in the wintertime...well, let's just say, it factors my cold, bony ass, right on back into the refuge of my warm, cozy house. But now, having suffered all these years of pulling my long hair out of my mouth and chasing my paperwork down the street, I have finally found something nice to say about the wind.......clean electricity!
The use of wind power is nothing new to the world...or even to the prairie. It is only in recent decades that electric pumps have replaced all the windmills that once dotted the Oklahoma landscape, bringing water to the surface for the farmers and their livestock. Even the wind generation of electricity is not a new idea. As a child, my father lived on a 1930s, western Oklahoma, Dust Bowl farm which made good use of a small "wind charger" that could create enough power to run a radio or a light bulb (Just a radio, at Dad's house. They used coal oil to light their lamps). The only problem was, on those occasional calm days, or when the wind laid down at night, you were left with only the power stored in the generator's crude battery system (usually just one or more car batteries).
With the oil boycott of the 70s, wind generators regained some of their former popularity, but the problem of storage still remained and was only reconciled when power companies were forced by new legislation to accept privately wind generated electricity into their power grid, side-stepping the storage issue, altogether. This was accomplished by requiring the owners of these wind turbines to purchase a second meter. The original meter would preform the same as always, recording the amount of kilowatts used by the consumer...but the second meter would "clock" the extra, "unused" electricity produced by the turbine, sending it into the company's grid, for use elsewhere. This compromised solution allowed the power companies to continue selling electricity to the individual "wind farmer", at retail prices but also forced them to buy privately generated "wind power" back from the consumer...but only at wholesale prices, of course.
Not only was the 70s a time of consumer reawakening to the concept of wind generated electricity, but also drew the attention of the large power companies, who now found themselves in the position of paying these individual wind farmers for their small contribution. With the rising cost of fossil fuels coupled with environmental concerns, they soon realized the potential of massive wind farming.
The largest generator of wind power in the U.S. is currently Florida Power and Light, with 44 wind farms in fifteen states. http://www.fplenergy.com/renewable/contents/wind.shtml Generating more than 2700 megawatts, FPL Energy supplied nearly 40% of all U.S. wind power in 2004. I, myself, am having a first hand look at FLP wind farming, as for the past several weeks, I have been watching their roustabouts erect massive wind turbines all around me.
That's right, folks! Two years ago, my community finally won the long awaited, scientifically proven and totally deserved title of, "The Windiest City in Oklahoma". (No.......kidding.) FLP's newest Oklahoma wind farm is following a natural ridge that skirts the southwest corner of my little hamlet, with the ridge running NW to SE. As my "little villa on the prairie" happens to sit just west of town, I have found myself "smack dab" in the middle of these towering "wind-monsters".
These General Electric,1.5 megawatt turbines stand 80 meters tall (approx. 262 feet), at the hub...with three blades, 126 feet long. The concrete foundation is 33 to 35 feet deep with embedded bolts, forming a base of 14 feet in diameter with the collection system underground. (I'm told, it takes between 75 and 80 yards of concrete for each foundation.) The minimum wind speed to produce electricity is 8mph with the optimum speed being 25 - 35mph. The turbines automatically shut down at 56mph but are said to be able to withstand up to 300mph winds. (Now, we're talking Western Oklahoma!) The electricity generated at this farm will be sold to the local power company, AEP Public Service Company of Oklahoma.
Our fair city is altogether pleased and truly excited with our new herd of "wind monsters", migrating their way across the prairie. Area farmers have sold land leases, the mayor is calling the new farm a tourist attraction, and I'm sure Dolese must be grinning ear to ear over their concrete sales. We've already heard all the jokes (No wonder it's so windy...look at all those big fans!), and we're all looking forward to the next phase which will add more than double the number of turbines.
I have to admit, even I was a little giddy when this project started, a month ago...watching these "monsters" rise up from the ridge, just to the South of my house. Then, they sprang up behind my house, running to the West for a couple of miles. Last week, they suddenly appeared across the creek, to my North. What an imposing sight, from down in my little valley, between the ridges.
HEY!!! They’re stealin' my wind!
Author's Note:
THE SKY IS FALLING!
I was having a quiet Thursday night {May 5th}, home alone, when I heard a tremendous crash to the South of my house. Believing there had been a bad, multiple truck wreck on the interstate, I stepped out my front door, into the darkness but heard no sirens and saw no emergency lights.
I came back in and went on about my business for a couple of minutes, when the thought dawned on me, "Did a Wind Turbine come down?"
I've just returned from viewing the downed turbine, located a tad over a mile, due South of my house. A crane was at the site and the damaged turbine and it's tower lay crumpled, not more than a hundred feet or so from the state highway that runs through this section of the wind farm.
Although the Sheriff's office has assumed this was an accident {The wind was only 7-8 mph} and the "word" about town is that there was a manufacturing flaw {The rumor is that seventeen others will have to be replaced.}, there has been no official word from FPL Energy, on the collapse of it's turbine. However, the day after this article was published, FLP Energy announced the addition of twenty-seven more turbines to the farm, in two months. Future plans, if approved, calls for later phases to bring the total number of generators up to near two hundred and fifty.
(Editor's note: Two hundred and fifty wind turbines....that's a lot of potential "accidents".)
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Down The Middle Archives:
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