It's Earth Week. Imagine a quiet, little town meeting their energy needs with wind power.

Turbine blade convoy passing through Edenfield in the UK.

‘Low-impact’ wind-turbine operator in plea to farmers for small sites  (click title to entry - thank you)

by Sion Barry, Western Mail

Apr 18 2011

A WIND farm operator is seeking sites across South Wales suitable for small scale wind installations.

Windberry Energy Holdings has appointed Alder King to find sites suitable for wind turbines. The consultants are seeking sites of 1,000 square metres available on a 25-year lease.

The wind turbines are 37 metres tall or a little more than 121 feet tall.  That is approximately the size of a six story building, but, not nearly as 'needy' in its 'footprint.'

1000 square metres is 10,764 square feet, about the size of a 100 foot X 100 foot piece of land.  That size 'footprint' is about one-fifth the size of an American football field.  An American football field, including end zone but not bleechers, is 160 feet X 360 feet.  So the piece of land is not at all that large for this turbine. 

The rent the landowner will receive on ONE turbine is 12,000 British pounds or nearly $20,000 US.  Not bad for doing nothing but allowing a wind turbine to be placed on the property.  The beautiful part of this is that farmers can earn that money while still farming the rest of their land.  So, they are guaranteed a substantial income for the lease of their land and if they have more than one turbine their income is multiplied by the number of turbines on their property.  Pretty good deal. 

“The scheme provides long term, stable income to landowners, whilst producing green energy for the UK. We are searching for sites at least 450 metres from towns or villages and outside conservation areas. The site will have a wind speed of more than 7 metres per second at a height of 37 metres. We would encourage any landowners with suitable sites to get in touch.”

There is absolutely no reason why the same dynamic could not be harnessed in the USA and supply American Family Farms with a larger purpose and guaranteed income.  That is approximately $2.00 per square foot. 

In the USA, one acre of farmland is 43,560 square feet.  If there were four turbines on one acre of land that is an annual income of $80,000.  There is absolutely no crop an American Family Farmer could grow that would yield that kind of income.  An operation like this of any Family Farm would improve their lifestyle and improve the quality of their farm operation, they could pay off any of their debts and have state of the art operations. 

Why aren't we doing this here?