TradeWinds’ development will probably play out in one of several ways. Without a height restriction, and no firm siting plan included under their current application submission, they may initially install the 600 footers plus or minus.  

These would probably need to be re-powered in a decade or so. At that point, whoever owns it then might choose taller structures such as the new monster turbine: the GE Haliade-X, the biggest, tallest, and most powerful in the world. (to date) It is a whopping 853 feet, to tip.

The very tallest onshore so far, seem to be the Hancock Wind project in Hancock County, Maine. Those, Vestas V117-3.3s, if you must know, are about 574 feet tall.

So that’s onshore. What about offshore? Well, as of yet, the US  has one and only one operating offshore wind installation, the Block Island Wind Farm off of Rhode Island. Its turbines rise to roughly 590 feet.

The Haliade-X will have a rotor diameter of 722 feet, roughly double the average. The blades will be gargantuan, 351 feet long each, longer than a football field and longer, GE says, than any other offshore blade to date. The massive rotor diameter, plus the steady offshore wind, plus the 12MW turbine (onshore averages around 3MW; offshore around 6MW), means that that the Haliade-X will have an unusually high capacity factor.

Under a worst case scenario, for DeWitt County, with no height restrictions, the first decade would plant all of these concrete foundations around the County, stomping a huge footprint to support the 600 footers. Then as they transition to the taller, more powerful replacements, they would simply chop down the old ones, leaving deep concrete footings in place, and their permanent raods.

To site the newer taller replacements, that next generation would then require a new site plan, due to setbacks,  proximity to adjacent taller towers, etc. which would obviously require additional foundations to be built on a different array. New permanent roads, more concrete, more havoc.

Some participating land owners in this scenario might host the first round of ‘short’ 600 footers, which is off-shore scale at this point in time anyway, I might add. 

Or they might switch to the biggest ones available from the start, and many participating land owners who thought they would get a turbine or two, may find they simply have a good neighbor agreement. 

Researchers at the University of Virginia are working on a design for an offshore turbine that will tower, no lie, 1,640 feet, higher than the empire state building.

With no height restriction, and no firm site plan in their Special Use Permit, I would advise anyone in this county to be advised, get the details nailed down. Or we’ll be the ones getting hammered.

Bradley D. Barnes, MBA

Clinton