Remoteness a Hurdle in Harvesting Panhandle's Winds
This is the final part in a three-part series examining Texas' $5 billion build-out of transmission lines to support wind power, which is encountering increasing opposition. The first part looked at the rollout of the lines around the state; the second part looked at the fight in the Hill Country.
On a wind map of the United States, the pinks and purples — indicating average speeds of 17 to 20 miles per hour at nearly the height of modern wind-power turbines — carve a great, meandering swath through the Great Plains. Some of the deepest hues reside in the Texas Panhandle, where ...
Comments (2)
BlackSheep01
If you lived in West Texas before the REA brought electricity to most of our farms and ranches you saw a lot of those wooden windmills -- most farmhouses had at least one for the water well, and many ranches still use them to pump water for stock tanks in pastures especially on ranches.
I can see two possible solutions. The first is to bury the transmission lines, which has several advantages (and one obvious disadvantage other than cost, which is that farmers can plow them up inadvertently) -- it would be much harder for weather to cause outages on underground lines, they're more difficult for people to sabotage, and they're less vulnerable to damage from accidents such as cars hitting the poles. Yes, it costs more up front. Over time that cost will not merely be recovered because the lines last longer and cost less to maintain, it'll become a profitable aspect of the operation.
The second is to stop building big wind farms and start putting turbines at points of use.
Cities such as Lubbock and Sweetwater are already experimenting with this, as is Shallowater.
RockyMissouri
Thank you for this article--------I am so envious!These windmills are simply beautiful and magnificent....if only everyone were as bold and forward-thinking, we could have an important effect on the dynamics of our nation!...perhaps other communities will be able to follow your bold lead and it will ripple throughout our nation----THAT is my desire!