CANADA FREE PRESS:
Environmentalists and wind energy opportunists (entrepreneurs who take advantage of overly generous tax credits and multiple other subsidies) want you to believe wind energy is as pure “green” as newly driven snow is white, and as cheap as Taco Bell.
They never tell you about the costs – or the environmental destruction – that they have hidden from you for decades. But neither do most governments, news media or social media.
The Green New Deal joke would be funny, if it weren’t so economically and ecologically expensive
Ars Technica science editor John Timmer says wind hardware prices are dropping, even as new turbine designs are increasing the typical power generated by each turbine. Timmer did admit that “wind is even cheaper at the momentbecause of a tax credit given to renewable energy generation” [emphasis added]. He cautioned that phasing out the many existing incentives could surely create uncertainties regarding wind’s future cost and dominance. But that’s about it.
The U.S. Department of Energy’s 2018 Wind Technologies Market Report glowingly stated: “With the support of federal tax incentives, both wind and solar power purchase agreement (PPA) prices are now below the projected cost of burning natural gas in existing gas-fired combined cycle units.”
This is despite the fact that the DOE’s own data show wind’s “capacity factor” (percent of time actually generating electricity at full capability) is only 35%, compared to 57% for natural gas plants and 92% for nuclear. In many locations, huge industrial wind facilities actually generate power well below 30% of the year. On the hottest and coldest days, it’s often close to zero. That’s why nuclear power plants actually produced 20% of U.S. electricity in 2019, despite having only 9% of the nation’s generation capacity.
In addition to being weather-dependent, intermittent and unreliable, wind turbines cover vast areas of land; affect scenic views and local wind flow, temperature and moisture; kill bats and birds of prey, with no penalties under migratory bird or endangered species laws; have relatively short life spans and require massive amounts of raw materials, especially for ocean turbines, compared to coal, gas, hydroelectric or nuclear plants; involve enormous air and water pollution in faraway countries where a lot of the mining, processing and manufacturing are done, before turbine parts are shipped to America; and more.
h/t systemically confused
I hate to wreck a good story but the raw materials they are talking about are 7075 aluminum for the housings and 304 stainless for the shafts and gears. Which all are readily available. Zero impact. I’ve proto’d a ton of these.
And this happens too, darn it…
https://www.liveleak.com/view?t=sDHfz_1601142811
shhhhhh …. I’m trying to get a subsidy for every time I ‘break wind’
hey! a really good fart actually helps the toilet flush …. I’ve documented it in my research paper (w/ powerpoint presentation pics & video … I spare no expense!) that’s included in my grant application
hey, I’m not blowing smoke here! …. this isn’t just a lot of hot air!
“you air the wind beneath my shorts”
Just another gigantic scam to suck wealth away from the people who create it and dump it in the bank accounts of civilization-hating nihilists and flat-out crooks and gangsters. To get popular support, they lie about everything and present their efforts as noble environmentally beneficial pollution fighting when what is actually happening is just the opposite.
James Delingpole’s epithet for those wind turbines is still the best even some years after he coined it:
bat-chomping bird-slicing eco-crucifixes.
All they need to do is put a big fan in front of them! Then the turbines would produce power 100% of the time.
When it’s steaming hot and humid, those turbines aren’t turning.
@Brad ~ the blades???
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-02-05/wind-turbine-blades-can-t-be-recycled-so-they-re-piling-up-in-landfills
ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ
To tired to read your attatched, but you can tell me where I’m wrong. The blades I’ve been exposed to are composite. And to recycle composite you grind it up and use it again. I’ll check in tomorrow.
@Brad ~ not saying you’re wrong … just offering a different viewpoint
posting an article from ‘Bloomberg Green’ (not a very conservative publication) that is showing pics of industry burying hacked-up rotor blades from wind turbines
w/out gov’t (taxpayer) money neither wind turbines or recycling is very economical … glad to see your making scratch off of it though
A number of years ago when the whole trend was just getting started I used to see the blades on railroad flat cars (they were rally big, it took two cars to haul a blade) parked along railroad sidings while in transit. Out of curiosity I stopped and went over to look at them up close and they looked like they were made out of fiberglass to me.
Maybe they are made differently now, these were some of the first ones. Don’t they, or didn’t they, use rare earths in the generator magnets as well the way they do in electric auto motors?
Michael Moore is a BIG SAC-O-SHIT but his last propaganda film “PLANET of The HUMANS” is worth a watch by all sides of the political spectrum.
For the first time he really SHITS on “GREEN Energy” and lefties really get upset when he goes after Solar Turbines.
Watch it and recommend it to the assholes in your life. It really upsets them.
Don’t get me started on how much of your weekly ‘recycling’ get dumped in a landfill.
I worked for an electric utility and naturally we took advantage of the government subsidies for “Green Energy”. Our corporate environmental scientist discovered early on that our windmills were killing tree bats by the thousands. I seriously doubt that information was ever reported outside of the company.
For Brad: you say you tried to read the attached link. Since words have meanings I’ll translate that to you did not read the attached link. The final paragraph is useful to this trolly discussion:
“But the fiberglass blades remain difficult to dispose of. With some as long as a football field, big rigs can only carry one at a time, making transportation costs prohibitive for long-distance hauls. Scientists are trying to find better ways to separate resins from fibers or to give small chunks new life as pellets or boards.“
Including subsidies in energy cost calculations is laughable. If you would send me $100 per month as an energy subsidy my monthly cost for energy would be near zero.
Bind the blades together to build the wall required to quarantine Californicastan !
lurker
I hope you come back and read this because the Fiber Glass remark points to the fact the author is a moron and making shit up as he goes. You can’t make those blades out of Fiberglass. It would be about the same as using a Pool Noodle. They are made from a Composite. The truth of the matter is the ChiComs use to buy all this shit a recycle it. They don’t anymore do to Trump and for good reason. Case in point, we produce about 1600 pounds of aluminum chips (shavings) per month. The price we sell them for averages about $1.80 per pound over the last ten years. Right now we get .22 cents a pound. Apparently our mills have not figured out how to process high grade aluminum chips. The ChiComs are still trying to steel all yellow metals though. But that’s a different story.
@BB fiberglass is nearly impossible to recycle (google) They have discovered that the leading edges ablate / abrade in rain and dust, break down from UV rays – have to use UV protecting paint (limited protection). All of those things could have / should have been researched in experimental wind facilities, but because of politics, propaganda and stupid people, we wasted billions of our $$ forcing wind into full scale production. They might be useful after the Biden apocalypse and total breakdown of our industrial complex, but then again, the blades will probably be unrepairable by then too.
BB fiberglass is a composite. Whatever composite they are using – is still a composite and is still very difficult / cost prohibitive to break down and recycle. The strongest / stiffest composite is likely a carbon fiber material – still can’t be broken down, but sure burns nice – and toxic.