Day 43 Dodge CityJun 24, 2012
|
|
The Middle of American
Wind Turbines
Many wind turbines
| Projected high temperature is 105. We’re out and about this morning and staying in this afternoon. We drove up to Kinsley by way of a Kansas Scenic Byway. We drove through farms and country-side. We discussed if we had ever seen land so flat and agreed that there is no farmland anywhere that is any more flat. Most of the wheat has been harvested so rather that amber waves of grain, it’s now amber fields of stubble. The corn here is still small unless the field has irrigation. Even with water, this corn has a lot of growing to do. Kinsley is a small farm service community with a one-block main street of mostly empty buildings and a grain elevator/grain co-op. It bills itself as the middle of the country—1561 miles to New York and 1561 miles to Los Angeles. We saw a very big wind farm. We estimated it was about a mile deep on both sides of the road for 12 miles of roadway. There are maybe 250 turbines. Some turbines were turning, some were still under construction, and some were not turning. The farmers seem to be able to cultivate all around the turbines, leaving only a right of way to the pole and a circle around each one. So they benefit from the lease money and growing crops underneath the turbine. And the area benefits with power from a renewable source. This wind farm was so large there was also a transfer station for the power on both sides of the road. At 3:00 pm the temperature is 108. Too hot! |
Advertisement 
|
