Lyon County could see a 25,000-acre wind energy project in its future. The wind in Lyon County, along with ample transmission lines, make Lyon County an attractive place for wind energy development.
RES Americas is looking at land in east Lyon County, south and east of Reading, as a potential site for a wind farm to be spread across 25,000 acres. About 2,000 to 3,000 acres of the total would be in Osage County.
Chad Horton, land acquisition manager for RES Americas, was in Lyon County Wednesday to speak to landowners and inform them about wind energy and the company.
“It’s going good,” Horton said in a teleconference call Thursday afternoon. “I would say that I’ve spoken to personally or talked on the phone with probably 95 percent of everyone, and the majority of the response is very positive. ... Really I just want to arm the landowners with as much information about wind energy and who we are and let these guys make an educated decision.”
Horton said it takes a lot of group and one-on-one meetings to inform landowners about wind energy.
“We like to do that in person so that everybody can look at a map. ...” he said.
Developing a wind energy project takes years, Horton said. The first step is identifying a site that has the appropriate wind and transmission lines. A group of technical engineers look at prospective wind sites.
“The next thing we do is research and see if the land is available or if anyone has leased the property,” he added. “That is not the case here (in Lyon County).”
They are at the next step here in Lyon County, which entails talking to landowners.
After a group of landowners is on board, RES moves to leasing properties.
“Which we call a wind energy land lease,” Horton said.
From there the company moves into permits, project interconnection and transmission agreements, negotiations with utilities and then to layout and design of the project. The company also needs to make sure the infrastructure will work for the site.
After all the steps are completed, the turbines are ordered. The development phase takes 18 to 48 months, Horton said. Following the development phase, the construction phase lasts anywhere from 9 to 12 months.
“Our guys have a wealth of experience in this,” Horton said. “It’s a very large construction effort, so it does take time.”
The first phase of construction includes construction of roads, turbine pads and electrical infrastructure. Turbines are then built.
“It’s virtually maintenance-free,” Horton said. “There’ll be a service technician that will service turbines about once a year. Generally, once these things are in operation, they just handle themselves.”
Horton said of the land leased, the company equipment occupies only 2 percent to 3 percent of the acreage.
“The landowner will go back to using about 98 percent of the property,” he said.
Comments
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Posted by josiesbar (anonymous) on January 16, 2009 at 2:19 p.m. (Suggest removal)
$
Posted by dale011 (anonymous) on January 16, 2009 at 4:07 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I'm glad to see this happening here. I've researched a bit on residential wind turbines because I would like to put one in my field to pump water and charge batteries. We have plenty of wind in Lyon county (not meant in a bad way) and there is no pollution from wind generation.
Posted by dale011 (anonymous) on January 16, 2009 at 4:09 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Here is one place to look if you are interested in residential wind turbans
http://www.bergey.com/
Posted by gravy (anonymous) on January 17, 2009 at 6:59 a.m. (Suggest removal)
kvoe has had this story for a month
Posted by create (anonymous) on January 17, 2009 at 8:06 a.m. (Suggest removal)
What's your point, gravy? This is a first time for me because I don't listen to KVOE, not everyone does.
Posted by oh4theluvof (anonymous) on January 17, 2009 at 9:56 a.m. (Suggest removal)
This seemed like an old story to me too, and I wondered why it was getting so much repetition until gravy posted that. I realized that I had been reading it on the KVOE web site, not here. I'm glad everyone is caught up now.
Posted by wirewatt (anonymous) on January 19, 2009 at 6:14 p.m. (Suggest removal)
KState has shown a unit at the fair that uses photo volactics that powers a pump and will pump 3500 gallons a day for around $3000. It will pull water up to thirty feet but you lose some gallons.
Posted by LifeGoesOn (anonymous) on January 19, 2009 at 6:50 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I say bring on the 25,000-acre wind energy project, even if the wind stops blowing there is enough Hot Air coming from people on these forums to keep the turbines spinnig! lol
Posted by mhouts (anonymous) on January 22, 2009 at 10:48 p.m. (Suggest removal)
For anyone interested, there is an interactive GIS webpage that shows a lot of the data layers relevant to wind site planning. http://www.kars.ku.edu/maps/windresource...
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