Personal reference

[gemfyre]

> - how much land would need to be cleared to accommodate the turbine towers?

Does anyone know why wind towers can't be placed on already cleared farmland? Are they too much of a hindrance to harvesters or do they scare cows or something? I imagine some farmers would be overjoyed to recieve the rent paid to them to place a few wind turbines on their properties. At least that would solve the problem of having to clear land.

Comments

[blue-cat.livejournal.com]

If you were using large machines to mow hay / harvest crops then they need to move more or less straight lines and not avoid obstacles like rocks or turbines, also there may be issues in plants growing up them / needing to weed around them.

*shrug* but then I am [a] in the UK and [b] don't know much :)

oh, and the turbines would have to be somewhere windy - farms may or may not be.

[jakie-em.livejournal.com]

The problem with many wind farms is that they are too far way from a centre of population to be effective. ie: tasmania gets batered by the roaring 40's on the west coast, but most of the population is on the east coast. they still have sind farms around straughn, but Hobart is powered by Hydro a fair bit.

I have pics somewhere of the powerlines criss-crossing a nationalpark and hwy in tazzie. You know they are uing "environmentally friendly" means to generate the power going through the lines, but acres of trees were distroyed to give the towns the power.

Windfarms are best near the coast... I know there is another one past geeklong in Victoria, this was there are less hinderances to the wind. they are oftne usually on a hill, caching the wind as it is pushed over the hills. inland you find "poo-power" from pig farms more or hydro. solar is to space intensive and unreliable to be as common as the other forms.

Many farmers put methane power back into the grid and otehr forms of power where they have excess if they are generating their own. so next time you was you hair you can think you your self, was my water heated by shit...

[dead-corvette.livejournal.com]

Does anyone know why wind towers can't be placed on already cleared farmland?

I think alot of the time turbines are situated right on the coast so as to catch the best winds...having turbines on farm land (which is generally more inland) may no be as effective...??...thats the only reason i can think of.

[morningglorymlp.livejournal.com]

What blue_cat said and this...

Imagine the construction to put one of those huge things up in a field. That field would have to be out of commission for at least a season I'd imagine. Here, farmers can't afford that at all. Plus, they'd probably have to put more work into getting their field back in order after being compacted by heavy machinery. I also don't know what the turbines are like underground, but I can imagine they'd have to have quite a base to support the above-ground structure, so there may be more land taken away per turbine than you might think just by looking at it.