The two oldest wind turbines in the state of Nebraska, located in northeast Lincoln, are set for decommission and demolition in early July 2024.
Lincoln Electric System (LES) announced Monday, preparations have already begun to take down the two turbines, one about a half-mile north of I-80 on N. 70th Street, and the other near the Lincoln City Landfill, both built in the late 90’s.
The turbine on N. 70th was already out of service due to a mechanical issue, and coincidentally sits on the proposed the new Nebraska state prison. The one by the landfill is nearing its life expectancy of about 25 years, and has been put down for decommission based on its limited remaining life and cost savings of simultaneous demolition.
As the first two wind turbines in the state, they have played a key guinea-pig role in Nebraska’s renewable energy development.
(Tom Stanton, KLIN News)
“If you go back to the beginning, we learned an awful lot about wind at a time when the industry was really new, especially in this part of the country,” Scott Benson, LES manager of Resource & Transmission Planning told KLIN News. “The knowledge and experience we gained from these allowed us to go and contract for smaller pieces of wind projects, and what we learned from that eventually led us to going and contracting for our own larger wind projects. The two turbines really changed the face of what our energy-portfolio looks like today.”
More than 20 years later, this pair of turbines ultimately makes a relatively small contribution of 1.3 Megawatts (MW) of energy to the LES system, which can power about 300 average Lincoln homes. LES’s peak total system load is more than 800 MW. Benson said wind technology has made great strides in the last two decades.
“One of the big things you see is turbines are just much larger now, and most are much taller, which gets them up into better wind, and they have much larger generators on them. So they put a lot more power per turbine than what these did back in the late 90’s,” said Benson.
The felling of both 290-foot-tall turbines is set for early July, and cleanup will take place throughout the month. Once removed, parts will be recycled, salvaged and disposed of in an environmentally compliant landfill facility, LES says. Demolition workers will conduct a controlled explosion at the base of both towers, with targeted fall directions.
It’s unlikely these old prairie fans will be replaced, according to Benson.
“The land right around Lincoln is not a great area for wind. There’s much better spots across Nebraska or the broader region, and that’s why you see most of our LES wind energy not sourced locally,” he said.
Today, LES’ nameplate resource portfolio is comprised of 34 percent renewable resources (i.e., wind, hydro, solar and landfill gas), 35 percent natural gas and 31 percent coal. LES pledged in their 2022 Integrated Resource Plan to eliminate or offset LES’ carbon dioxide production from their generation portfolio by 2040.