Lincoln Electric System has announced plans to decommission the two oldest wind generators in Nebraska, located in northeast Lincoln.
LES will decommission Wind Turbine #1 (East) as it sits on the proposed Nebraska Department of Correctional Services site. The turbine is already out of service due to a mechanical issue.
Wind Turbine #2 (West), located closer to the Lincoln City Landfill, fully maturing this year, had an initial life expectancy of 25 years.
LES has studied the viability of this remaining turbine and is moving forward with decommissioning it as well, based primarily on the remaining life of the equipment and cost savings for decommissioning this turbine at the same time as Wind Turbine #1.
Preparation for the decommissioning has already begun; the felling of both turbines will occur in early July, and cleanup will take place throughout July. Once removed, parts will be recycled, salvaged and properly disposed of in an environmentally compliant landfill facility.
Constructed in the late 1990s, these 290-foot-tall wind turbines have a total capacity of 1.3 MW and served as LES’ first investment in wind.
They allowed LES to learn more about renewable energy, which led to investing in many utility-scale wind projects and other renewable energy sources. To date, LES’ nameplate resource portfolio of wind is approximately 300 MW in high-wind areas of Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma.
Based on the LES 2022 Integrated Resource Plan, wind energy will continue to be a part of the future generation mix as part of LES’ goal to eliminate or offset LES’ carbon dioxide production from its generation portfolio by 2040.
Today, LES’ nameplate resource portfolio is diversified between 34 percent renewable resources (i.e., wind, hydro, solar and landfill gas), 35 percent natural gas and 31 percent coal.
The removal of Wind Turbine #1 and Wind Turbine #2 does not meaningfully change this breakdown.
