This weekend MH headed out to Jetmore for a family reunion. Kansas wind folk might have just thought - hmmm, isn’t that close to the Spearville wind farm?
Yes, it is. This is the view from my uncle’s front yard/ pasture. He lives south of Jetmore. The zoom on my camera did beef it up a little. No one at the reunion but me (and my Dad) seemed to notice them on the horizon.
For comparison, this is what’s left of the little windmill that stands just back of the farmhouse, which powered the original pump for the farm (which had dairy cattle at one point). It also occasionally powered car batteries that then ran various farm and household devices. Another uncle had a hilarious story about climbing out of his window one night and shinnying up the windmill. He got caught. He ended up sleeping in the field the rest of the night (with the rattlesnakes. So he said).
And as we were driving in from Dodge, my dad stopped and insisted I also take pictures of the transmission lines serving the Spearville wind farm (as well he should). That’s my car in one of those pictures, just for scale. It’s a CRV.
He asked - “Are these the size they are talking about putting in between Spearville and Wichita?” I said that I was by no means an expert, but that I bet these were considerably smaller. Smaller tower, wire, right of way, I don’t know which. But I do bet they are smaller than 765 kV.
Overall impression of southwest Kansas right now - they have it as dry there as we have it wet here. Pretty crazy.
— Maril Hazlett, www.climateandenergy.org
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