TRENT, Texas, Dec. 2, 2007
Winds Of Change Blow In Texas
Once Known For Its Oil And Gas, West Texas Is At The Center Of The Wind Energy Boom
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Signs of a new energy revolution in West Texas: Wind turbines sprouting up as fast as wildflowers. But windmills are also setting neighbor against neighbor. (CBS)
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Dry, dusty towns are dotted with reminders of hard times: vacant motels; rusted cars parked at drive-in theaters that have long stood silent - theaters where crowds once flocked to see films that reflected their lives, like "Giant."
Set in West Texas, "Giant" told the real-life story of cattle barons refusing to change with the times.
That resistance to change and the desire to preserve a way of life, still remains. But today, the cause of concern is different - with rusted and retired pump jacks standing as witnesses of booms and busts gone by, a new "giant" looms on the horizon: wind turbines. They're sprouting as fast as Texas wildflowers.
They say everything is bigger in Texas, and windmills are no exception. One windmill is taller than the Statue of Liberty. Its huge turbine is longer than an 18-wheeler, and each one can generate enough power for more than 500 homes.
From the air you can see them on almost every mesa, stretching for miles.
"You can look back over here, and keep seein' 'em, another run and another run and another run," rancher Raymond McDaniel, who has more than 50 wind turbines on his land, told CBS News correspondent Hari Sreenivasan.
For most ranchers in these parts, McDaniel says it was a struggle just to break even in the cattle business.
"There was no water, there was no grass, there was no market," he said. "So everything went downhill pretty good."
But the money they receive from leasing land to power companies and their turbines, he says, has given ranchers some breathing room - money to better tend to their land and their cattle.
But not everyone is happy about the use of wind. In some cases, it is setting neighbor against neighbor.
"I'm offended that my neighbor would sell himself for money and not care what it did to me," Dale Rankin said. "I'm all for people making money. I'm all for people making a profit, having an income, but I think you need to be considerate of your neighbors when you're in that pursuit."
Greg Wortham is one of a new breed of prospectors pursuing wind-energy riches. He cashed in his retirement savings to start the West Texas Wind Energy Consortium and is trying to rally local support for renewable energy. He says the turbines are multiplying.
"West Texas is the 4th largest nation in wind energy today," Wortham said. "There's Germany, Spain, India, and West Texas."
And he's no carpet-bagger: Wortham grew up in Sweetwater, Texas and walked its streets back when it was an oil and gas town. "You could always tell you were home even if you were sleepin' in the car on the way home because you begin to smell oil, which was a beautiful smell," he said.
After high school he headed off to college and the big city where he worked as an energy attorney in New York and Washington, D.C. Now he's back, living in a renovated house just off Main Street, and he was recently elected mayor.
"I didn't come back here to be mayor, that wasn't the plan, but part of it is having been in N.Y. on Sept. 11th and realizing that you have one country, one hometown, and one lifetime to do something," he said.
For him, that something is helping to spark a wind energy gold rush - so far more than $6 billion has been invested in 120 West Texas counties.
"We hear nationally that people are being laid off by tens of thousands. Well, they need to come here. We hear nationally that housing starts are down. Well, West Texas needs hundreds of new, very high quality homes," he said.
To meet hiring demands, the community college has added courses in wind technology. Students are shifting gears to train for careers in wind-farming because the pay is two to three times above the local average.
The industry has given the entire region a second wind - generating new businesses and new construction. Schools are scoring as well. Tiny Trent, Texas has only 60 students in its high school, what used to be one of the poorest schools in the state. It is now state of the art.
"We've got two computer labs - one for the elementary and one for high school," Trent school superintendent Greg Priddy said. "We're getting projectors for every class room."
Priddy says none of this would have been possible without a healthy new tax base fueled by the turbines on the mesa behind the school.
But opponents like Dale Rankin worry all that income may be short-lived. He wonders what might happen if tax subsidies the companies rely on, come to an end.
"They'll shut 'em off and walk away, and we'll be left with thousands and thousands of these monsters littering the landscape," he said.
But that's not the way ranchers like Raymond McDaniel see it. When he looks at all the windmills he has one simple thought:
"A changing world," he said. "Changing world."
© MMVII, CBS Interactive, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Michelle Obama tells how her role as the First Lady has changed her perspective.
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See all 66 CommentsThank you!
There selling point: they ''reduce CO2'' emissions. However, in order to do so they would need to allow somer percentage of either baseload (the constantly running generation, generally coal or nuclear) or spinning reserve (the adjustable output, generally gas-fired) to be taken offline in proportion to the amount of ''wind-generated'' electricity added in.
That has never happened; no country, anywhere, has been able to cut back its conventional production and, in fact, C02 emissions from conventional have increased, since they must ramp up and down (inefficiently burning coal and gas) to compensate for wind variability.
Wind does NOT replace coal or gas; not even a little bit.
I wonder what it''s called when folk are forced to purchase a useless--totally useless--product at a high price, gaining no benefit?
There''s a word for that, I believe.
http://www.affordable-solar.com/renewable.energy.wind.htm
They only work when there is a constant wind speed over about the 10 mph minimum for start up; this rules out huge parts of the US. For personal use you need battery storage; with solar electric panels also if you want a reasonably balanced power supply; plus a backup generator,. Cost for a system, 10 kWhrs per day, to supply a smaller home about 30k to 40k depending how much work you want to do, and it will still require a major lifestyle modification.
This site has a ton of info.
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Posted by Edward1975
Can you provide any links with associated cost to put one up for a home? Links that might give a structural design also would be nice.
Could someone show me the numbers to prove I am wrong?
You calling me stupid when you voted for Bush? Excuse me, but...ummmmmm when you get your head out of your behind and if you find a brain cell take it an go live in Iraq where the surge is working. :)
Here''s a link that I found that answers a few questions.
They''re saying ~4million to build a 1.5megawatt windmill. This is a little one by the standards in my community. Most of the new ones going up now are 3megawatt and a 3 megawatt one will serve 700 to 800 homes (this is another figure that''s kind of hard to pin down).
This article was saying 30 to 50 years useful life. That''s a lot longer than what they''re saying around here. They tell me 8-10 years. But that may be the guts of the thing rather than the whole structure. I would imagine maintenance can be pretty costly for something like this, especially since you put them out where the elements are windy and rough.
WE need to look at this industry and figure out how it''s going to be run. Right now it''s looking like the medical industry. Inflated costs everywhere you look and it''s going to kill the industry in it''s infancy. Competition and inovation will save it. WE really have to figure out the storage issues.
Again, i believe wind can be used, but we need to work out the bugs.
If you deal with it as an eternal cost per unit it is prohibitive. But it isn''t the initial cost might be 1 billion USD to start, but after the initial start the cost per unit drops to near zero (Minus maintainence). I mean you dont have to make the wind blow, you don''t have to do anything to generate all the kilowats a generator is capable of (not even dam the river. where is the giant cost now, (Please, I am not being mean and bear no ill-will to you or any of the posters) this is a No Brainer, get rid of the crooks and drop foreign oil use our shale oil and coal until we get the Hydrogen motor working properly.
The amortorized investment required to get (1) KWH is more than the operating costs for existing plants.
Should government subsidize? If the "community" goal is improved air quality and reduced reliance on foriegn oil, then subidization is understandable.
I understand initial investment and the things entailed in it, the technology is here now and doesn''t have to be developed, the only cost is that of the generators and towers plus the land. the powerlines exist already so they are moot. My question is why do they require subsidation. the product is a no-brainer and there ''should'' be investors coming out of the woodwork, but no, somebody is causing problems because they do not want the competition from free stuff (wind) to interfere with the price of Oil or whatever.
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