I call dibs on the wind!

Just came back from the Wind Farm tour. Firstly, "wind owner" is a weird term. Secondly, this trip was far more about economics than I'd've guessed, which is both a good and a bad thing. If you're into business economics, score one for you. If you're not, welcome to a little thing I like to call "necessary education." Just learn it. It'll be good for you.

I could give some stats on the expenses of building the turbines, maintaining them and what amount of power they generate (though trying to put that number into human terms "this will power x houses for x length of time" was not really possible to pry from the conversation). Instead I will tell you this:

The sweet spot where the wind is generated is a valley between two 11,000 ft mountains, gathering winds from the west, and their season is about 4 months long, when 75% of their power is generated. The many (and interestingly different) variety of wind turbines are not owned by Walmart. They are owned by many different groups which I suppose is a rah-rah for the independent spirit but has the draw back of not organizing in a master plan. One can literally "steal" wind from someone downwind of them. It's good to know you can't actually get away with it, it is wrong and there will be consequences! In Arizona, there is an issue about rivers and who steals all the power upstream so water rights law can be a pretty lucrative career. I wonder if wind rights could ever be a thing. I guess if you can own it, you can litigate it?