Get the best ebooks about wind energy here :
So I have like 20 acres of land in Kern County. Where do I start if I want to sell some land to developers or windmill manufacturers. The reason is because there is a market of wind energy up there.
Are there certain companies interested in buying this land? Would it be developers, manufacturerss, operators or owners or windmill or windturbin ?
How do I get a list or where can I start. Anyone have any advice?
Related posts:
The easiest way is to contact a real estate broker. You will have to go through one to sell it, you might as well have them do this legwork for you. They will know if any companies are looking around for land.
Find out if there are any land use restrictions in the area. FAA lighting requirements depending on height and proximity to an airport. Look at existing power distribution infrastructure, and also check with a local utility as well to see how willing they are to help you with equipment planning. Do a cost benefit analysis to determine the realistic return on the investment and how long it will take to recoup your investment.
Then, evaluate the site for suitability. If you have obstructions of hills, that alone might preclude construction. Depending on the size of the generator you plan to construct, Factor in the noise produced from the equipment. They are far from silent. Do you have constant speed of wind in the area of about 25 MPH? Is you land large enough to contain the fall of the tower?
If you have more wind speed than that, there may be too much wind to operate a large wind plant cost effectively.
The American Wind Energy Association has some handbooks available for more specific design considerations divided between "small wind" which is 25 Kw or less and "Large wind" which are units larger than 25Kw.
If there are wind installations near the area you are planning on building your tower, find out what their unit costs are and their unit return per year before you spend any money if your sole plan is to sell power to the power company. If you build it where there are none in the region, the wind is not going to come to your plant if the wind is not there now.
There are wind energy companies that do weather modeling to find areas with consistent wind, proximity to roads, transmission lines and a consumer base as well as multiple landowners in the area so that there’s some competition between the landowners to keep the lease prices down.
You could approach one of these companies to see if your area is one of the areas they are modeling. The software used for the computer models are open academic research software so you could try weather modeling yourself or get the local university involved. It’s not just winds they are looking for but reliable consistent average winds particularly during the daytime hours. Often a site that a layman would describe as having plenty of wind energy would not be desirable for energy production.
Checking with the utilities is a good place to start, such companies must at some point interact with the utilities so the utilities know who they are in the area. The one that I know was just purchased by Riverstone and renamed themselves Pattern Energy Group, of course they’re in Texas. A former professor of mine was involved with a Canadian wind energy firm over thirty years ago and I used that contact in University to interview their president for a business report.
If you want a consultant to arrange an introduction, it’s customary to pay the consultant for that service even though it may be as simple as a business lunch meeting. Sun Microsystems and IBM often pay us consultants thousands just to arrange a lunch with an Oil and Gas sector company, of course it’s banking on our industry relationships built up over decades and to help them navigate an otherwise opaque corporate structure. Although I could probably arrange such an introduction, it would mean traveling and the associated expenses to do so at this point in time. A little bit of digging around at your local University and a little social engineering with your utilities should get you the contacts that you need.