Sherman County farmers reap stability from wind
According to the Oregonian:
Hilderbrand, the first in Sherman County to allow turbines on his land, reaps about $30,000 a year in lease payments. And the checks come without fail, he says, unlike the income from his wheat operation, which is squirrelly as the weather.
More wind projects are in the works, including a 400-megwatt project (which could double to 800 megawatts ) by BP Alternative Energy, a subsidiary of BP, and two more projects by Iberdrola totaling 700 megawatts.
The turbines’ concrete pads eat up some land, but farmers work around them. Hilderbrand estimates that his 11 turbines take three acres of his 1,200 acres out of production.
The Hilderbrands’ turbines are part of the Klondike wind power projects, owned and operated by Iberdrola Renewables, a Spanish company and one of the largest wind energy developers in the United States. Klondike has been going up in phases — the first in 2001 — and now involves 242 turbines and generating capacity of 400 megawatts. Accounting for the wind’s variability, that’s enough power to consistently light up more than 115,000 homes.
Farming of soft white wheat, most of which is shipped to Japan, remains the mainstay, he says, but “I make a really nice amount” from the turbines.
We at Lights On Oregon have been covering the power of wind for quite a while now. Wind is providing a stimulant to Oregon’s economy. It’s also slowly working us off fossil fuels. Because wind is both clean and renewable, it performs an important role in energy production. T
he question remains, why do radical environmental groups oppose wind energy?
