Looks like they have started installing them on our ranch in Webb county. Anyone have experience with the construction? I have heard they will make the roads much better? They are telling us 1 yr turnaround.

Any experience with affect of deer and dove pre and post construction? I have heard they are installing 170 of them over 6 ranches which we are in the middle of all those ranches.

**** wind turbines.

I agree but i have no say so. Just trying to make beat of it. I dont see deer leaving bc its six ranches so where the deer going to go? I do think it will hurt the bird hunting.

Will they put one next to a stand forcing us to move stands? I know lots of traffic during construction but after construction how often do they come in? Are they like the oil well guys coming in everyday?

The roads around them always look pretty well maintained. Better than most ranch roads I've been on.

I know they make a lot more noise than I initially expected. Hard to explain, but kinda like hearing a car drive down a road a couple hundred yards from you every 10-15 seconds.

I've hunted relatively close to them near Lubbock a few times. . The geese and cranes don't seem to mind them very much

Are you sure you can still hunt? We were offered a contract (20 years ago, never built) and it would have banned hunting

Was told we cant hunt near construction sight unless with bow or shotgun. However we can still hunt "otherside" of ranch during construction.

After construction is complete no restrictions.

Same here. I was offered a contract, that I also turned down, that said no centerfire rifles. I'm sure you could negotiate out of that, but the contract I was presented was not very good. Most of my neighbors felt the same way.

Side note, I often wonder how many of those things are riddled with bullet holes from guys taking pop shots at them.

If my old time water windmill on the county road is any indication, the bullet holes would be in the thousands

I guide on a ranch that has 12 of them. Roads are always great, way better than a typical ranch road. Deer, elk, ducks, dove, quail don't care. I don't see how they generate enough revenue to pay for the maintenance. Where we are, the units are about 20 years old, leak a lot of oil, catch fire and spend a lot of down time.

My entirely un-scientifically based belief is they have a negative impact on dove. Our place consistently had decent to good dove hunting. The year wind mills started going in around our place there was a noticeable decrease in dove population. The last 4 years have been atrocious. I think it changes their migration pattern.
No discernable impact on ground wildlife.

jmm said:

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I guide on a ranch that has 12 of them. Roads are always great, way better than a typical ranch road. Deer, elk, ducks, dove, quail don't care. I don't see how they generate enough revenue to pay for the maintenance. Where we are, the units are about 20 years old, leak a lot of oil, catch fire and spend a lot of down time.

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They won't make enough money once the subsidies run out . The companies will go belly up and disappear, leaving the landowners with these eye sores to deal with themselves.

Try not to have a wind turbine between the rising or setting sun and your house or living area.

The sunlight flickering through the turning blades will drive you nuts.

Dirty-8-thirty Ag said:

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jmm said:

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I guide on a ranch that has 12 of them. Roads are always great, way better than a typical ranch road. Deer, elk, ducks, dove, quail don't care. I don't see how they generate enough revenue to pay for the maintenance. Where we are, the units are about 20 years old, leak a lot of oil, catch fire and spend a lot of down time.

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They won't make enough money once the subsidies run out . The companies will go belly up and disappear, leaving the landowners with these eye sores to deal with themselves.

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Insert old man yells at cloud.gif

We (the gun community) are quick to say that Congress and dems are quick to make statements on guns and come up with rules to regulate them when they have no real clue about them. Well, I'd say many conservatives could heed that advise when it comes to renewables. It's not all just green new deal/dem funded/only alive because of government money.

HEADACHE!!

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-23/wind-turbine-collapses-punctuate-green-power-growing-pains

Habituation, the animals get used to their new surroundings and it won't impact them, after construction is done.

Think of it this way, the guaranteed revenue fir the next 30 years may be what allows the current owner not to have to eventually sell, and the new owner from kicking you off.

Our lease in Sterling County is covered with them. The roads are great. The turbines don't affect the deer. Not sure about doves because we don't have enough to worry about. A couple of blinds are literally right under the turbines.

The turbines are noisy and ugly and I wish they had not put them up, the views were much better...they didn't ask me.

tlh3842 said:

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Dirty-8-thirty Ag said:

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jmm said:

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I guide on a ranch that has 12 of them. Roads are always great, way better than a typical ranch road. Deer, elk, ducks, dove, quail don't care. I don't see how they generate enough revenue to pay for the maintenance. Where we are, the units are about 20 years old, leak a lot of oil, catch fire and spend a lot of down time.

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They won't make enough money once the subsidies run out . The companies will go belly up and disappear, leaving the landowners with these eye sores to deal with themselves.

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Insert old man yells at cloud.gif

We (the gun community) are quick to say that Congress and dems are quick to make statements on guns and come up with rules to regulate them when they have no real clue about them. Well, I'd say many conservatives could heed that advise when it comes to renewables. It's not all just green new deal/dem funded/only alive because of government money.

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Bottom line is there would be a LOT less windmills and solar farms if not for government intervention with tax dollars.

You could say that about other things as well

tlh3842 said:

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You could say that about other things as well

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Of course you could. But they're not the topic of this thread.

Texas is typically getting 20-40% of our power from wind and solar. It's not a fad and it's not going anywhere. Natural gas will continue to be needed to handle variability in demand and production, unless storage technology improves drastically.

I've never got the "ugly" complaint either. I think they're as pretty as a pumpjack.

At least with windmills the land is still very much useable.

Solar farms are a different story - they destroy any useable aspect of the land completely. Hate them.

I have them all around me. 212 low fenced acres, northern Mills county. Note I said all around me and none on our land. So we get a view of them for free. At least the neighbors get paid.

Blattner energy did the install around us. They did great with road construction, fence demo, fence reconstruction, and for most part - traffic control. Really couldn't have asked for more from them. They even did good going slow on rural FM roads and on the dirt to keep dust down. They kept the water trucks out to knock down dust too. During the week, they had a road crew out to keep the roads in the best shape possible.

The turbine leases in our area preventing the land from being leased for other purposes so lease hunters were out during construction. Some landowners decided to replace hunting income with wind turbine income after construction was complete so the number of deer hunters in the area declined unexpectedly. I'm not mad at that.

I have videos of the noise. I can post them if anyone is interested.

We used to have awesome dove hunting. We didn't during the construction year and didn't the first year following - but I noticed a good amount of birds in deer season. The locals say the dove patterns changed dramatically and they aren't around in numbers during dove season anymore. They say that from experience with the turbines around Priddy that have been there several years now.

The locals also claim wind turbines will keep the land from being subdivided. I think that's only short term but time will tell.

Lots of locals supported the wind turbines. It's bringing income to properties that haven't seen that much revenue in generations. Again, I'm afraid that's short lived and then we are stuck with the after math.

As stated, I have no dealings with the wind turbines companies but my neighbor does. He says they have been great to work with and rebuilt as much fence as possible for him before they left the property.

Let me know of questions - I just went through this!

To be fair, you can't see a pump jack from 20 miles away though.

schmellba99 said:

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At least with windmills the land is still very much useable.

Solar farms are a different story - they destroy any useable aspect of the land completely. Hate them.

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I dislike both - but I'd much rather have wind turbines around me than solar farms. The solar farms kill vegetation and have lots worse long term implications.

People argue with me about this all time - often saying wind turbines effect everyone and solar farms only impact the land where they are. I challenge them to argue that same point in 20 years…

96ags said:

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To be fair, you can't see a pump jack from 20 miles away though.

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On the flip side, the pads and storage where pump jacks are is usually filthy with a hefty amount of spillage, rust and general ugliness, and I have seen more rusted out old pump jacks that were just left in place than I could ever count. They aren't exactly quiet either.

Windmills are required by law to be removed at the end of the life cycle and the foundation demo'd to I believe 6 feet under ground. That's just the law, practical application is likely to differ.

GentrysMillTX10 said:

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schmellba99 said:

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At least with windmills the land is still very much useable.

Solar farms are a different story - they destroy any useable aspect of the land completely. Hate them.

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I dislike both - but I'd much rather have wind turbines around me than solar farms. The solar farms kill vegetation and have lots worse long term implications.

People argue with me about this all time - often saying wind turbines effect everyone and solar farms only impact the land where they are. I challenge them to argue that same point in 20 years…

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Yeah, we are getting a few around us put in. Hey, the landowner makes the choice, so more power to them. But I can only assume that they are getting a hell of a lease deal because the land that the panels are on is 100% dedicated to panels for the life of the equipment. No grazing, no farming, no nada.

Solar farms also seem to have a co-gen nearby. Both of the ones close to my house do anyway.

Dirty-8-thirty Ag said:

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jmm said:

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I guide on a ranch that has 12 of them. Roads are always great, way better than a typical ranch road. Deer, elk, ducks, dove, quail don't care. I don't see how they generate enough revenue to pay for the maintenance. Where we are, the units are about 20 years old, leak a lot of oil, catch fire and spend a lot of down time.

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They won't make enough money once the subsidies run out . The companies will go belly up and disappear, leaving the landowners with these eye sores to deal with themselves.

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This. My parents were approached in regards to some land we own in Wharton county. After talking with our lawyer and doing some research, we found that once a company goes under or the windmill stops working 50 years down the road, removing it is an extremely difficult task and you'll have difficulty getting support to remove it. The money made from it isn't significant. It's also a huge eye sore that will hurt your property value if you go to sell it.

OP, why didn't you have a say? Do you own the ranch or just lease it? The only energy I agree with is oil and the income generated from it is not even in the same stratosphere as wind or solar. Tell everyone to pound sand including those oil companies. Just tell them to pound it in the ground!

Quote:

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Solar farms are a different story - they destroy any useable aspect of the land completely. Hate them.

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100% agree & it is a total scam. Comparison between solar & nuclear:

Webberville Solar Farm in Austin is about 400 acres & will generate 60,000 megawatts annually with a 25 year life span. (Solar panels degrade over time & get less effective every year) Cost was 250 million & heavily subsidized by the government. They don't work at night.

The new Vogtle nuclear plants in Georgia sit on about 1000 acres & will generate 17,000,000 megawatts annually & employ 800 people post construction. The plant could be in service for 50+ years. (or longer)
Cost was 12 billion with lots of $$ tied up in regulations & red tape. Nuclear plants work year round 24/7/365.

We can build nuke plants here, unlike solar panels built in China using Uygher slave labor.
Nuclear gets us 10X+ power per acre of land used & has double the lifespan.
We need more nukes!!

Definitely agreed on solar ruining the land.

The photos are of a solar farm that is currently being installed, The second picture is directly across the road from it and what the solar array used to look like.

We have lots of ways to make electricity. We have limited ways/space to make the food (worldwide).

96ags said:

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tlh3842 said:

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You could say that about other things as well

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Of course you could. But they're not the topic of this thread.

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I hear you, but the majority of folks make it sound like the only government subsidies are going to renewables which just isn't genuine

Apache said:

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Quote:

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Solar farms are a different story - they destroy any useable aspect of the land completely. Hate them.

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100% agree & it is a total scam. Comparison between solar & nuclear:

Webberville Solar Farm in Austin is about 400 acres & will generate 60,000 megawatts annually with a 25 year life span. (Solar panels degrade over time & get less effective every year) Cost was 250 million & heavily subsidized by the government. They don't work at night.

The new Vogtle nuclear plants in Georgia sit on about 1000 acres & will generate 17,000,000 megawatts annually & employ 800 people post construction. The plant could be in service for 50+ years. (or longer)
Cost was 12 billion with lots of $$ tied up in regulations & red tape. Nuclear plants work year round 24/7/365.

We can build nuke plants here, unlike solar panels built in China using Uygher slave labor.
Nuclear gets us 10X+ power per acre of land used & has double the lifespan.
We need more nukes!!

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We're having 2 built on our ranch west of Cisco. So far the company has been great. Money is significant and there is a bond for post life(removing etc.) The turbines they're installing now are around 3MW big boys. When they're paying $4-6k per MW per turbine per year as a base rent(rent paid even if it isn't producing) and then additional royalties for revenue. That's not nothing.

They're re-doing a road that's roughly a mile long and will certainly improve the property. We weren't necessarily for them but the mailbox money, road improvement and the fact that our neighbors are also getting them it made sense to get paid if we have to look at them.

Call me weird but I don't mind them or pump jacks. It's just another artifact in the long line of West Texas energy.

I will say that I wish we put all that money into Nukes though. Would be way better!

Edit- don't have them up yet but will report back on wildlife. Everything I've read however said it hasn't effected it at all. We have decent amount of whitetail, hogs and dove so I'll report back in a year.

Oops

In a year they will be up on mine so
I can report back too. I need up to date info on wildlife not a year from now. Lol just kidding