LINCOLN- The state's oldest continuously operating wind turbines are set to be torn down in July, changing a landmark seen while driving into northeast Lincoln along Interstate 80. According to Lincoln Electric System, the company's two 290-foot-tall turbines have reached the end of their productive runs and need to be removed.

The two wind turbines marked some of the earliest examples of what utility-class wind production in Nebraska might require when they were installed in 1998 and 1999. Scott Benson, an LES representative, said the Lincoln turbines helped LES learn enough wind power to enter its first small contracts for wind farms. "We learned a lot from them," he said.

LES now has contracts for 100 megawatts each of wind power from wind farms in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska. Combined, the two turbines being torn down generated around 1.3 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 300 average-sized homes in the Lincoln area. One of the turbines was set to be removed after the city had swapped land with the state to build a new prison.

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