2. Cost of a Lawyer — Ask the wind power company to pay to have the agreement reviewed by a lawyer who will work for everyone in the area. This saves you $ 500 to $ 1,000.

3. Transferability — Add a clause that stipulates that the agreement cannot be transferred by the wind company to any person or company without your approval. If the company is truly in the wind business, they will be willing to pay you a fee if the lease is transferred.

4. Appearance – None of the leases address appearance, but you could have to look at the thing for 50 years. Add a clause that prohibits advertising on the tower. Add a clause that stipulates that the paint colour be agreed. Add a clause that requires that the tower be painted within six months of the appearance of rust or discolouration. Add a clause that covers effective reclamation of the site when all is done.

5. Building Restrictions – Attach a map of the property to the agreement that outlines areas where new buildings over 20 metres can and cannot be built.

6. Fill Material — Under no circumstances should a developer use fill taken from your land.

7. Gear oil — Many wind towers have a reservoir of toxic lubricating oil (PCP’s) in the generator compartment. You can prohibit the use of such oil in the lease.

8. Option Termination — Add a clause that stipulates that the contract is ended if construction has not started on a wind tower within five years from the date of signing. Do not sign a contract without a clear beginning and a clear end.

9. Net Meter Tower — Ask the company to lend you its crane to install your own net metered wind generator. You’ll have to be ready when they are, but it could save you $ 10,000.

10. Option — Set the option payment at a minimum and escalating according to the value of the land. The minimum should be $ 5,000. And the option should cover annual payments while a test tower is in place as well as crop losses etc. You should become an owner of the wind data collected if no tower is built within five years.

11. Rent — Change the clause with respect to rent so the percentage of gross income paid to the farmer starts at 3% or more. Rent should apply to all income from the project including green house gas credits etc. Once the tower has paid for itself the rent should increase. Change the rent clause so the percentage of gross income paid to the farmer increases with the cost of power or at set intervals of 2 to 5 years, so rent rate rises to about 10%.

12. Insurance — Add a clause stipulating that the wind power company must produce a certificate of valid insurance covering liability to the farm and others each year and that in any event it assumes full liability for all damage caused by the wind tower.

13. Protect Capital Value — Add a clause requiring the wind power company to make whole any losses in re-sale value that might occur as a result of the lease or a wind tower being in place. If the wind tower effects your land value, losses might not be covered by rent.

14. Your Other Rights — Some leases have clauses that appropriate your development rights for aggregates, ground water, top soil, sale outside of the family and even your right to speak in public on wind power questions. Any such clause should be stricken from the agreement.

15. A Cooling Off Period – have a clause that states that either party may cancel the agreement within 30 days without reason or penalty.

16. 0ther Development – If the property might be valuable for other development in the next 50 years, think. At most, sign a lease that commits you for no more than 20 years if, for example, you feel your land might be valuable for urban or other development.

17. Power Sales -Stipulate that power must be sold via the IESO or that you get to approve any other contract. Without this the power can be sold to a third party firm held by the wind power company and the 3% rent you were hoping for will 3% of very little.

18. Hours, Times of Access – stipulate that access is during ordinary business hours and requires permission on weekends, at any time or hour in an emergency and that the wind power company agrees to defer any activity except emergency repairs that interfere with seeding, harvest, calving, lambing, or other farm or family activities that are time restricted.

19. Area of Lease — Limit the area covered by lease to a suitably small area – 1 to 5 acres.

20. Applies to One Lot Only — Limit the agreement so it only applies to the actual lot leased and that there is no reference to any other land owned by the farmer.

21. Wind Rights Only — Do not allow any clause that gives the wind power company a right of first refusal or an option for any purpose other than the use of the wind. Such clauses encumber sales, wills, development of other businesses etc.

22. Term of Lease – suggest 3 year option, 20 years for first term and 5 year renewals to follow. These time frames provide company with enough time to do tests and make profits and they bring the replacement date for the generator and the lease renewal dates closer together, which improves your negotiating position.

23. Assessment and Property Taxes – the land owner is ultimately responsible for taxes – a clause to require the wind power company to pay taxes associated with the wind tower is essential and it requires an enforcement clause – you cannot afford their taxes, unless you have their income. In the case of default, you should get the licences to produce and sell power.

24. Wait ‘Til You Know Your Choices – The government is preparing Standard Offer Price rules. With those rules, (out in early 2006) you may be able to run your own farm energy project and do better than you might as a landlord. Lease offers should become more competitive once the Standard Offer rules are known. Don’t sign a lease until the choices are clear and you have determined what is best for your farm operation for the next 20 plus years.

Download “Two Dozen Suggestions About Wind Power Leases for Farmers”

Download “30 Suggestions on Wind Power Leases for Farmers” (April 2007)

This recording was kindly provided to National Wind Watch by Calvin Luther Martin.

Listen to “Dr. Nina Pierpont on CFCO radio”

“Richmond Road Turbine Splatters”

View original photos:
 

Introduction

The history of human technological innovation is littered with projects that have had to be abandoned because they were based on a narrow theoretical view that failed to take into account the whole picture. The commercial exploitation of wind energy is fast showing signs of such failure.

The last ten years in Europe has provided ample opportunity to evaluate the real costs and claimed benefits of industrial wind turbines based on actual operating statistics.

• Studies by public electricity distributors now challenge the very assumption upon which the ecological value of commercial wind power is based: that it reducescarbon emissions.
• Energy experts report that industrial wind power is proving to be exceptionally expensive to consumers once required backup and additional infrastructure are factored in. The high cost is caused by (a) the need to maintain backup generating reserve to cover times when the wind does not blow. (b) The need to stabilize the grid when wind produces power that is not needed by current demand. (c) Government subsidization and tax benefits for the wind industry.
• New studies show that the perceived benign environmental footprint of the industrial wind turbine does not correspond with the latest field studies of migratory bird and bat mortality. Growing public protests over noise and health effects are being provoked by wind turbine installations.

In the United States, Senator Lamar Alexander put it bluntly when introducing his
Envirnonmentally Responsible Wind Power Act of 2005:

My studies suggest that at a time when America needs large amounts of low-cost reliable power, wind produces puny amounts of high-cost unreliable power. We need lower prices; wind power raises prices.

In Ontario, Tom Adams, formerly of Energy Probe, wrote in the National Post on 20
November, 2007:

Without radical technological advances, wind power will only burden Ontario consumers.

The first section of this report explains why the real cost of wind power is much higher than previously understood. It examines some of the actual operational reports of electricity distributors with installed wind power. It looks into studies by experts in the field who explain the difficulties involved when industrial wind turbines are taken beyond the theoretical stage and actually integrated into a mixed electricity grid system. And it discusses why they fail to deliver the benefits once promised.

The next section looks at public dissatisfaction with industrial wind power and the issues involved.

The report concludes with specific recommendations and requirements.

Download “Calculating the Real Cost of Industrial Wind Power”

“The study presents results from a synchronized database of actual wind production and consumer demand. Recognizing that the production experience to date covers a relatively short period of seven months, this study makes the following observations:

• Capacity factor so far is 22.3% (not including results from a wind farm apparently experiencing start-up problems);
• Periods of very low or no production were particularly common during high-demand periods;
• High but highly variable wind production during low demand periods was common; and
• The hourly production pattern in most months demonstrated a declining average output during the 4 a.m. to 8 a.m. period ““ a period when consumer power usage consistently increases.

“The study finds that two previous forecasts of wind power’s contribution to reliable Ontario generation capacity during the summer significantly over-estimated the value of wind power relative to the experience during 2006. Energy Probe is concerned that a clean and promising generating technology is being burdened with unrealistic forecasts of reliable production at times of high electricity demand that are not consistent with the actual production experience.”

Review of Wind Power Results in Ontario: May to October 2006

Download “Policy Comments on Point Petre Commercial Wind Turbine Generating Plant”