That's the only time I have enjoyed seeing one of those pieces of shit, good riddance

The Madison Wind Farm was a power generation plant located in the town of Madison, New York. Constructed in 1999-2000, it was the first wind farm completed in New York state and the first merchant wind farm in the country. The power plant consisted of seven Vestas V66-1.65 MW wind turbines, generating enough energy to power up to 10,000 homes. The Vestas V66-1.65 MW wind turbines had a hub height of 67m and a 66m rotor diameter; 100m to the top of the rotor.

The Madison Wind Farm was developed and funded by the unregulated arm of PG&E, by project manager Laura Walker; construction began in 1999. It was the second wind farm in New York State and the first merchant wind farm in the United States. The first wind farm was constructed a few years earlier by Niagara Mohawk and was located in Copenhagen, NY. Niagara Mohawk decommissioned their facility saying wind farms were not feasible in the state.

The Madison facility is located on private dairy farmland in the town and county of Madison, in upstate New York. The New York State alternative energy program supported its development.

These turbines could produce enough energy for up to 10,000 homes. The power produced by these turbines was routed to New Jersey. The wind farm was owned by Horizon Wind Energy.

Two other wind farms: Fenner Wind Farm and Munnsville, have since been completed and are operating in Madison County.

The Farm occupied more than 120 acres and the total wattage was eleven megawatts.

All seven turbines were taken down by implosion on September 17, 2025, because, according to the company, the wind farm was "no longer considered economically viable, primarily due to the current turbines being out of production, making repairs and obtaining replacement parts increasingly difficult and costly."

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The next phase involves determining the fate of the materials.

"We are able to divert the turbine blades to a waste energy facility in Niagara County, New York, so not too far from here," Smith said. "The rest of it will likely end up in a landfill, but each individual piece will be evaluated to be reused or recycled."

Once the debris is cleared, the land will be restored to its original agricultural use. "This project is separate from other plans we have going on in the area, so these will come down. They will be restored, the land will be restored and go back to agricultural land use, and this parcel will continue to do that as long as the time the owners own it," Smith said.

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I don't believe for a moment that the total energy produced by those seven turbines within their lifetime equaled the energy used to design, manufacture (including materials mining), transport, erect, operate, decommission, demolish and transport away to dispose of.

No video available
What did I miss ?

quote:

Originally posted by bendable:
No video available
What did I miss ?

Click on it to watch on Youtube.

quote:

Originally posted by r0gue:
I don't believe for a moment that the total energy produced by those seven turbines within their lifetime equaled the energy used to design, manufacture (including materials mining), transport, erect, operate, decommission, demolish and transport away to dispose of.

That's the thing...
No one would build something that used more energy than it produced without a subsidy.
So... we are borrowing money we don't have, going further into debt, to subsidize wind.

Man's folly. Erased.

RMD

quote:

Originally posted by chellim1:
No one would build something that used more energy than it produced without a subsidy.

No sane, intelligent person anyway! If it needs a subsidy, you're probably buying into a losing game.

Productive, economic, awesome, amazing, earth shattering, advanced, WHO CARES? They are FUCKING UGLY and an affront to natural beauty. Every one should be torn down, ground to sharp shards and shoved up the asses of wind farm proponents. If you have seen these hideous things marring the beauty of the southwest deserts, then you understand my hate.

That looks like beautiful farmland. Hope they drained gear oil before collapsing them as those big bastards hold more than a drum each.

What I'm hearing now that green energy is doing to farmland in that part of the country is putting solar farms over productive farmland that has electric lines crossing it. Lots of concerns of the solar farms going bankrupt and the solar panels being left in place which essentially takes the farmland out of production long term. I've heard the lawyers have them setting up each one individually as a separate LLC/LLP/MLP.

What was the maintenance cost of simply cutting the grass around those turbines?

A great sight to see.

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Originally posted by gpbst3:
What was the maintenance cost of simply cutting the grass around those turbines?

Looks like a hay field. Plus, I saw a hay rake (i.e. pull behind implement that windrows the cut hay so the baler can follow behind to bale it) parked along the edge of the field at one point in the video.

It's upstate NY farm country so I'm guessing the farmer sold off 7 plots to the turbines and kept on farming the rest. Lots of dairy in the region so a lot of acreage in hay to feed the dairy cows. My coworker inherited the family farm in that area, and when he retired he became a hay farmer.

Thanks for the tap tip.

And the concrete bases,
Who is going to dig up 7,000,000 yards of concrete and haul it off ?

Windfarms are quixotic ventures.

Amazing how much better the landscape looked in 20 seconds. I despise wind turbines.

Maybe I am cynical, but I think the point of these projects is to wash kickback money through companies connected to politicians in a manner difficult to track as bribery, fraud, or embezzlement.

Would love to see some deep-dive DOGE style forensic accounting on the money trail of these projects and associated subsidies.

If you think wind turbines in the Southwest désert are ugly, you should fly to Maui, and as your flight passes north over Ma’alaia harbor, look off to the left and see the row of wind turbines violating the West Maui Mountains.

quote:

Originally posted by RichardC:
Windfarms are quixotic ventures.

Tilting at windmills I see.