Wind turbines

hopeso

Has anyone been approached regarding the erection of wind turbines on their land? There was a lad around here last week asking a few farmers in the area if they'd be interested. My first response to him was, Sure, I'll take a few of them…. And on paper, they sound great. Something like €30,000 a year payment per turbine for the life of the turbine, which is 25 or 30 years, I think. However, reading the smaller print I see that once you sign up, they have 5 years in which they can enter your land to do whatever tests they wish to carry out to determine if the site is suitable. They pay €1,000 a year for this. Then, they have the option to extend that 5 years for another 5 years, during which time they pay €2,000 a year. This is where I lost interest. That's potentially 10 years in which they can come in digging holes or whatever they want, and maybe never even see a turbine at the end of it. It would certainly be worth the gamble if you had a bit of rough ground that wasn't very productive, but surely it's too much of a gamble on reasonably good ground?

eire23

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058376876/wind-turbines

The five year extension to the original option agreement will probably be needed as it's very unlikely to have everything ready to go in five years. They won't go in digging holes everywhere, read up on Eiar assesment for windfarms to see what's involved. A wind mast has to be erected on the site for a certain time to record the wind speed, needs to be 8m/s average or above that I think to be viable.

Then they might get planning but cant get a grid connection so that could take up a few year. And you can't look for a grid connection unless you have planning. Was there a signing on fee for the original 5 years as well as the 1k?

hopeso

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122742789#Comment_122742789

Thanks for that….some useful information. There was no mention of a signing on fee, but the meeting I had with the rep was fairly brief. He just showed up out of the blue.

eire23

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122742844#Comment_122742844

What was the company called? Generally they offer say in your case 30k per turbine per year or else 4% of the gross profit. If it's a good wind site the 4% will always beat the base payment per turbine. Is there many if ye possibly involved? If ye could all stick together in what ye want it will be a big help and good luck with it!

hopeso

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122742868#Comment_122742868

Just looking at it there now, and I see an option fee of €2,000. Maybe this is the signing on fee?

The company is European Energy

deandean

The economics make a heck of a lot more sense than what is being offered to farmers for solar pv.

older by the day

Did they mention Roadways. I had a couple of guy call years ago. Like that I signed up for the five years. But it never came to anything. Never got paid anything back then. It turned out to different to straighten every road around here to bring the pylons.

We have lots of turbines near here. I would not like to live too near them, the whizzing is bad enough if you are downwind of it. They are built on boggy hills. The roads take up more ground than the base. And the technicians will need access to that road for as long as its turning.

wrangler

My brother in law signed the first 'option' in 2012 and they haven't started turning yet, he's been told they'll probably start paying early i the new year.

eire23

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122743433#Comment_122743433

Is that yellow river windfarm in Rhode?

wrangler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122743479#Comment_122743479

No, Geashill, it's just ready to go

eire23

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122743550#Comment_122743550

Ah right, was down by Rhode a month or two back and thought it may have been them.

wrangler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122743633#Comment_122743633

There's a lot of turbines between our place and rhode, all across BNM's worked out bog. Ironic that they'll still be producing electricity. They should be putting solar panels between them rather than using good land

somofagun

Will you not run into an issue with capital gains or inheritance tax later down the line as we would up here in the north as the land is not being used for agriculture purposes anymore so is not exempt from these taxes

hopeso

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122743171#Comment_122743171

The only mention of roadways is that they would construct them, and the landowner could use them for agricultural purposes….but I suppose there could be a lot of ground lost to them.

The roads around here wouldn't be the best for bringing in large turbine components, but I assume they've done some basic research into things like that, before they approached people.

hopeso

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122745446#Comment_122745446

I have no idea… But it's certainly something to look into before starting anything.

dmakc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122746348#Comment_122746348

You'd be shocked at how little research these private companies actually do.. A wind farm in Waterford was recently rejected as it was sought in an area literally defined as a wind exclusion zone by the council.

My experience is these companies spin the globe, find a few farmers then get some con artist to write an EIAR which claims square pegs can fit into round holes

80sDiesel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122746558#Comment_122746558

Which one in Waterford was that?

dmakc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122746768#Comment_122746768

Was around 20km NW of Dungarvan can't remember the townlands

alps

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122745446#Comment_122745446

The footprint is tiny, and the area can be removed from the agricultural area being transferred.

The site with the turbine will be valued at the discounted future rental value of the lease. So if a turbine had 10 years left in a lease of 30k/year with CPI annual increase, it's future rental value of 300k wpuld be it's taxable value....which is a sizable hit.

This can be negated by careful planning before signing the lease. NB