I knew that the windmill in Orwells book Animal Farm was a metaphor for something.
Who knew that was windmills?

Lots of windmills around here.

They knock down a lot of birds.

Makes for excellent coyote trapping.

Annoying to work under.

NC has the 2nd most solar farms and there are people who object to them. Pays the landowner more than farming does.

I believe that alternatives such as wind and solar can be useful in situations where it is used at the point of production, but the big commercial operations are just a way to tax the wind and sunshine.

Last summer I was out on Lake St.Clair walleye fishing on the American side and off in the distance on the Canadian shore all you could see were windmills. When taking Amtrak, we passed through Ft. Madison Iowa and there was a huge facility where tower parts were stockpiled.

The newer ones are better because they’re taller and can be in the area of the atmosphere where the wind is more constant but still not the best.

I would love to see a check for anywhere near that for a year lease with 100% of the setback on the signing landowners property. These are a joke the only thing more of a joke is the $$ promised by the energy companies through the land lease shysters. Don’t get me started on how the property values taking a hit within the “green wind farm”

Our lease fees around us that were put in 10 to 15 years ago were not anywhere near the 20k range that was stated. Back then 5-8k was the range. Maybe other areas with more wind got more. They may have had escalator clauses but I have not been in contact with those land owners in a few years now.
We do have one small field of turbines put in about 12 years ago along the Lake about 50 miles from me that are not running and being taken down. Just a whole lot of tons of scrap metal now with low prices and no market.
The reason many farmers here liked them is if you had 400 acres somewhat spread out you could put in say 6 to 8 of those and loose only about 10 acres of land total and the real benefit is that people were not going to build new houses in the area and thus non ag land uses went way down.
Bryce

Yep I live near Macomb. I'm also retired from a rural coop. Obama admin mandated electric utilities to buy 20% renewable energy. IL rural coops already were part owners in a brand new coal fired plant which was 10x more clean than EPA standards. They had all the electricity they needed and under contract to buy. So they had to contract some windmill electricity. They had to pay $.04.5/kwh for this renewable. Couldn't use it but resold it on the grid for $.04/kwh. Also if a member wanted their electricity from wind generated power they could for a extra $10/month. Created another job for one coop that had bought one windmill. Someone had to go every day and count dead bats and birds form the windmill. But oh my ain't it a warm fuzzy?