Steve Kropper, founder of WindPole Ventures, wants to lease old towers and convert them to wind turbines. He and several partners have formed a wind power development firm that will evaluate 1,200 microwave tower sites (owned by American Tower) to gauge their suitability for wind turbines. WindPole Ventures eventually would like to lease as many as 300 of the sites from American Tower.
Many of the sites WindPole Ventures is researching were built by AT&T during the Cold War as part of a government and civilian network to relay data, including voice communications. American Tower said some of the sites are currently being used as cellphone towers, while others are no longer used.
Kropper and his partners cite several reasons for building wind turbines on microwave tower sites:
- Nearby residents are accustomed to living near microwave towers, which are 150 to 495 feet tall – so they are less likely to be bothered by the 240-foot-tall turbines WindPole proposes.
- The sites are already connected to the electrical grid.
- The towers already have permits from the Federal Aviation Administration and Federal Communications Commission, which could make it less complicated to win permission to put turbines up near or in place of the towers.
Kropper’s plan is install about 150 turbines, capable of generating a combined 300 megawatts, on tower sites within the next five years. According to a formula used by the American Wind Energy Association, a national trade association, that would generate enough electricity to power about 79,000 US households for a year.
Kropper said it could cost several thousand dollars annually to lease each site from American Tower. WindPole could also have to pay American Tower a per kilowatt charge for electricity generated. In addition, he said, each turbine would cost about $3.5 million to purchase and install.
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