Some Cloudland residents upset about proposed wind farm
Written by Jimmy Holbrook, AM 1180 Radio, www.chattooga1180.com 20 September 2010
Written by Jimmy Holbrook, AM 1180 Radio, www.chattooga1180.com 20 September 2010
Some residents in the Cloudland community in Walker and Chattooga Counties are upset about a proposed “wind farm” on Lookout Mountain. AM 1180 has learned that representatives from a Spanish energy company, Iberdrola are pitching the idea of an electrical wind generation farm to some Cloudland residents.
According to residents who have talked with representatives from Iberdrola the wind farm would run from north of the Otting Tract on Hwy 157 (east side), then crossing over at the Walker/Chattooga line east of 157 (Allgood Y farm), then turning north about a mile and then northwest, crossing High Road behind what was the Family Grocery, then crossing Flarity Road at the corn fields, and proceeding a mile before turning to northeast toward Camp Adahi.
Cloudland residents said that the representative from the energy company noted that they do not want to go into areas with expensive houses, country clubs, golf courses, etc. as they would have a fight. One resident from Lookout Mountain said “Conversely they must think that they will have little problem in this area with low density and lower per capita income.”
The wind farm would be a group of wind turbines that generate electricity. That electricity is transferred through transmission lines which are buried in 3 feet wide and 4 feet deep trenches from the turbines to roads and from there to the large transmission lines in Cloudland. These trenches would mean blasting to bury the transmission lines.
Each turbine is 300 feet high (a typical cell tower is about half that), 16’ wide at the base, and with blades 150’ long. That makes the diameter about 300’ at the top. It weighs 500,000 lbs. It emits about 50 decibels in a “whine” form. It has a red light atop and security lights in the area around the base. Each of these generators should produce 2 mega watts of electricity. A road 50′ wide would be required to access each of the turbines.
Residents of Cloudland are concerned that farming, recreation and tourism would be adversely affected by the proposed wind farm. Also there is concern about the ecological stability of Lookout Mountain and how water tables would be affected by the installation of the wind turbins.
Cloudland residents that talked with AM 1180 said that they plan to organize and fight the idea of a wind farm on Lookout Mountain.
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2010/09/20/some-cloudland-residents-upset-about-proposed-wind-farm/