Oil Billionaire Building World's Largest Wind Farm

gadzook33 writes "CNN is reporting that oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens is planning to invest billions of dollars in what will probably be the world's largest wind farm. It will eventually generate 4 gigawatts, enough to power 1.3 million homes. The first 600 GE wind turbines are scheduled for delivery in 2010. Pickens says that each turbine will generate about $20,000 in income annually for the landowner who hosts it."

In other news

In other news... Oil companies erect large billboards to block naturally generated windpower in an effort to negate the power generated.

In all seriousness, I really hope this works out, as any effort to lessen our carbon footprint is a good move in the right direction.

Re:In other news

They are in the business of selling energy. Why should they not want to move into selling different types of energy?

Re:In other news

because that doesn't fit the template that I've been fed of <scaryvoice>evil capitalists</scaryvoice> that hate planet earth.

Re:In other news

Don't worry. After there are enough windmills, they'll find out how much the energy removed from the wind will affect the climate, and wind energy will be the next big evil ...

Re:In other news

we have removed enough trees to counter that effect

Re:In other news

Well if you like conspiracies...
1) Wind is too easy. With oil they could hide fake costs and over inflate real ones.
2) Wind is everywhere. By getting exclusive drilling rights they can squeeze out the little guy so they have no new competition.
3) It's new. Big corporations HATE new. New is work and new is learning. CEO people hate work and learning.

Personally reason 3 makes the most sense, But the others are possible. The fact that this guy is trying to move to wind shows that he's at least trying to move foward. Good for him

Re:In other news

Not really.
Very few new power plants are going to built that burn oil. The majority of new plants now are coal, followed by natural gas, and soon I hope Nuclear.
Wind farms will replace the Coal fired plants first so it really is a win for the oil companies to expand their revenue base.
Same reason that BP makes solar cells.
The Oil companies would like nothing more than to make more money selling wind power at the expense of coal. Which will make coal cheaper so the oil companies can use cheap coal to make expensive gas and diesel fuel to sell us to run our cars and trucks.

Re:In other news

I really don't understand why people think things like wind, solar, and nuclear power compete with oil. They don't. Natural gas makes a small amount of electricity, but oil fired plants are very rare and almost only used for peaking power. You can build as many wind turbines as you want but it is not going to appreciably affect oil usage because you are not making highly energy dense, transportable fuel. There is no conflict of interest whatsoever that a oil billionaire would want to build wind farms. A coal billionaire on the other hand ...

Doc Brown ain't all that impressed

That's only 3.3 time machines worth of power.

Don't bring up "killing birds"

Please don't bring up "what about the birds?" in regards to wind turbines. Just don't. Sure, some may fly into one and die. Some won't. It's called survival of the fittest. Eventually, evolution will program birds so they will know "wind turbine ahead = death". The ones that don't pick up on it will be dead, and thus not to worry about.

You see, if air pollution from oil/coal/whatever happens, that affects the birds too, dumb and smart.

Early adopter

And this is why the guy is a billionaire.

Pickens is not a good guy

This is the same guy planning to drain the Olligalla (sp?) aquifer to supply southern texas with water. Private water rights being abused, right before your eyes.

FWIW, these two projects (the wind farm and the water system) are really the same [texaskaos.com]

Re:Pickens is not a good guy

He also drank my milkshake!

Some notes

I live close to the Waymart Wind Farm. [orion-energy.com] Just a few notes:

I totally support wind energy and think the turbines have done good for the community.

They make noise. Even at 1/2 mile away, low whooshing sounds are clearly audible, especially at 4AM.

They are HUGE. Pictures don't do it justice. By the time your next to one, it's an awesome site.

The community here gets jobs and money from them. The government pays 1.8 cents per kilowatt hour for wind energy, netting the community here $150,000 a year. Also Florida Power and Electric pays about 12 employees here to service them. I've known a few that have worked on the turbines, they have some amazing pictures of being on top.

They significantly interfere with off-air television. I work for the cable company, and we had to build a giant antenna in another site because our first giant antenna was to close to the windmills. Local houses have trouble getting off-air signals, digital HD included.

They are a tourist attraction. The first few years they existed here, many people tried to sneak onto the private land to snap pictures etc..

1st Law of Thermodynamics

If we accept that the actions of human beings can impact the climate, and we accept the first law of thermodynamics, what impact will wind farms have on the environment? Imagine if every home and factory in the U.S. were powered by wind farms. How much energy would these farms be pulling out of the wind? How would that impact weather patterns? Something I've always wondered about. As we jump off fossil fuels and move on to other sources of energy I sure hope someone thinks ahead this time.

Re:'Bout time...

Sim City taught me that cold fusion is the way to go.

Re:Who is responsible for maintenance?

Very good point especially since these things can literally burn and crash.

This PDF [spiegel.de] contains some scary pictures. And there is nothing you can do if the turbine catches fire. It is to high up to put it out. Don't get me wrong I like wind energy but if these things are conventionally designed each one of them will be a bush fire waiting to happen.

Re:Who is responsible for maintenance?

There was actually a car on fire in the parking lot this morning. Just sitting there, parked.

Those things can literally crash and burn too.

Totally off topic but it was the most exciting thing to happen at work in forever.

Re:Who is responsible for maintenance?

Well with a little initiative on your part, exciting things like that could happen in your parking lot every day.

I'm just sayin'.

Re:They are industrially designed

But they will never be 100% reliable.

I never seem to find such quotes about nuclear power. I'd rather live next to a windmill burning than a nuclear power plant melting.

Re:just a few thoughts on clena energy

Just playing devils advocate as from a environmental point of view how could this be a bad thing. First off the US needs to do something like Germany and give economic incentives, ie a fixed price on energy. This way your not competing dollar for dollar with oil and coal.

Wait, so you think that developers are building these without incentives and that's a bad thing? Sadly, wind still does need incentives -- and gets it in the U.S. -- but the whole idea is for incentives to jump start the technology to where it becomes competitive without the incentives.

And these turbines, at least, aren't really gobbling land -- a lot of them get placed on ranch land, so it's essentially multi-use.

Re:just a few thoughts on clena energy

I am all for renewable energy, but I disagree with the idea of economic incentives. There have been a large number of potential renewable energy sources, and many people seem to have one that is their favorate. None of these (except hydroelectricity) have become major sources of power, due to various obstacles that still must be overcome. I think that once these ideas are economically feasable (*if* they are feasable) they will get investment and be implemented.

Incentives and subsidies rush products that are not yet ready into the market because they are made artificially cheaper. The problem is, instead of using whatever technology can profitably produce energy, we end up using whatever technology is the favorate of the most people, or the pet project of a particular legislator or lobbying industry (corn ethanol, I'm looking at you).

Re:just a few thoughts on clena energy

In most areas of the world, the wind blows not steadily.

If you add up the energy of all wind over the whole world, the wind blows VERY steadily. My point : if you put up windmills over a length of thousands of miles, your electricity production WILL have a steady baseline. (otherwise that would mean that the sun went out, AND the moon stopped rotating around the earth, AND the earth stopped rotating)

Re:its time to take notice!!

Pickens is on record as saying that Peak Oil is not only real it's now. As one of the last wildcatters it's not wise to bet against him. Then again he really likes Oklahoma State football so he's not right about everything.

Re:its time to take notice!!

> when oil billionaires are getting out of the business

Not exactly. Oil billionaries can't drill for oil anymore in the first or second world so they are looking at new sources. Drilling for some terrorist despot in a third world hellhole and hoping the regime lasts long enough to pay you the percentage they promised before the next revolution nationalizes the fields isn't all that enticing.

Owning windmills in Texas is a solid moneymaking proposition now and since Texas isn't likely to experience a revolution anytime soon and seize your assets long term investing makes sense.