For those of us who enjoy the grasslands, there is change in the air. It's been about 9 months since I was out last, and I had heard about the wind turbine farm that was going up, but I was shocked by the scale of it. From what I've read on the web, there are supposed to be over 250 turbines and this will be the second largest wind farm in the nation. It stretches for miles. The project is actually quite impressive and the size of the turbines and towers is immense. Right now, things are in various stages of construction. This picture is a tourist shot and doesn't do the project justice. Regardless of how one feels about a landscape being altered on this scale, it's worth a trip out to see it.
BTW, that's a farm house and barns in the middle.
Our firm is doing the civil engineering for the wind turbine plant that is being built by Vestas up north. They foresee a huge potential for wind energy development, particularly here in Colorado. At least there are plenty of grasslands around and I think its a good tradeoff for some cleaner energy.
I was a bit worried on approach to the Pawnee Buttes when I started seeing the wind farm, but it doesn't interfere much with the best views. You've got to be a bit careful and not include a lot of prairie when facing West, either in the initial badlands area or past West Pawnee Butte looking back, but otherwise it's well placed to avoid too much interference with the area.
There's a *lot* of wind potential in Eastern Colorado, and I'm willing to sacrifice a little bit of flatlands vista for the clean energy. Those towers are impressive, even from a distance. Don't know if the wind farm construction had anything to do with it or not, but I saw a lot of Pronghorn out there the other week, and I'd never seen any out there before...
Your photo and comment brings up an interesting point. For me at least, there's such a huge difference in perception between wind turbines and oil drills... I don't see wind turbines as messing up a landscape, perhaps because it's a clean renewable energy source - something that will help the earth in the long run. And they look cool!
As if global warming wasn't bad enough, now you guy steal all the breeze from us Easterners. I would move closer to the beach except the oceans still are going to rise. Maybe just wait it out and I'll have a nice beach front house.
Well, John, since you Easterners don't want windmills off the coast of Nantucket, Colorado had to sacrifice some of our scenic views for the national good.
Nice job of contrasting the turbines against the blue sky.
While on balance it's a good idea to supplement with this clean energy source, overdevelopment of wind energy needs to be closely monitored. Audubon and The Nature Conservancy are both monitoring new projects. There is plenty of wind, but not plenty of grassland. In fact, the shortgrass prairie is the world's most endangered ecosystem. For the most part, location and associated disruption of migration patterns are the biggest threat. The turbines arent't kiling as many raptors and bats as in the early going. I also hope that every hilltop and ridgeline isn't sullied with these things either......
Dave, these turbines are so large, a nearsighted flying pig would have a hard time not seeing them in time to avoid them... They also turn much more slowly than the old turbines, which makes them easier to see and avoid.
Given the new Colorado energy access law, I'm guessing the next big push will be to sign up a neighborhood of farmers for a few turbines each. Of course, it looks like about half the Pawnee Grasslands are for sale by the government right now, so maybe not...
Discussion
8 repliesBTW, that's a farm house and barns in the middle.
While I am glad to see renewable energy sources put to use, it seems like there's always a tradeoff.
There's a *lot* of wind potential in Eastern Colorado, and I'm willing to sacrifice a little bit of flatlands vista for the clean energy. Those towers are impressive, even from a distance. Don't know if the wind farm construction had anything to do with it or not, but I saw a lot of Pronghorn out there the other week, and I'd never seen any out there before...
While on balance it's a good idea to supplement with this clean energy source, overdevelopment of wind energy needs to be closely monitored. Audubon and The Nature Conservancy are both monitoring new projects. There is plenty of wind, but not plenty of grassland. In fact, the shortgrass prairie is the world's most endangered ecosystem. For the most part, location and associated disruption of migration patterns are the biggest threat. The turbines arent't kiling as many raptors and bats as in the early going. I also hope that every hilltop and ridgeline isn't sullied with these things either......
Given the new Colorado energy access law, I'm guessing the next big push will be to sign up a neighborhood of farmers for a few turbines each. Of course, it looks like about half the Pawnee Grasslands are for sale by the government right now, so maybe not...