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WC Ind. | We farm around 10 of them on rented ground. I do not have any on property I own. Our county has 400 of them. We have found that most of the road, compaction and tile issues can be averted with a good contract by the county. When our fields were put in the companies were required to leave the county roads in as good or better condition than they found them. We chiseled as deeply as we could behind the cable laying machine and erection cranes as soon as we could and have noticed very little compaction issues. The companies were required to hire a local tile contractor to repair broken tile. He followed the cable layer every foot of the way, marking and repairing each broken tile. He also was available for 3 years after completion of the wind field to repair breaks caused by crushing that might show up later. We have had very few problems farming around them and landlords seem very satisfied with the contract. They have stated that the contracts have a bonus payment for "extra" electricity produced above the contract, however the company appears to shut off the windmills when that amount may be approached. No proof of that, just their observation. The biggest down side for us has been the access roads. It varies greatly on how they are put in. The first company did not dig a trench to put in the road and elevated the roads bout 6 inches above grade. This has caused issues with surface drainage in fields with ponding occurring at the road edge in the field. It has proven very difficult to get them to correct these problems. As stated earlier, love them or hate them, most of your neighbors are probably going to sign up for them, so you are going to be looking at them anyway and your land will not be as valuable if sold. Good luck in your decision. | |
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Wind Farm thoughts to those that have them
