One of the darlings of the Climate Change crowd is how wind power can save the planet. The real truth is that it is more harmful than the other forms of energy production. Here are some the REAL facts about wind farms, especially offshore ones:
- Onshore wind farms require eight times the amount of critical minerals as natural gas power plants do.
- Offshore wind farms require 13 times as much. The huge quantities of critical materials, like copper and rare earth metals, are actually environmentally damaging. While mining is vital for economic progress, the excessive extraction required for wind turbines is totally out of proportion to the energy produced.
- Contrasting every megawatt of power capacity, a natural gas power plant requires about 1 ton of critical minerals, while a nuclear power plant needs 6 tons. In contrast, onshore wind plants require 11 tons, and offshore wind demands 17 tons of critical minerals — for the same megawatt of energy output.
- Wind energy also requires huge expanses of land. In a study by the Breakthrough Institute, wind energy takes about 30,000 acres per terawatt-hour of electricity generation annually, whereas nuclear energy uses 18 acres. Moreover, wind energy takes six times as much space as a natural gas power plant.
The largest U.S. onshore wind farm is the Alta Wind Energy Center, generates about 3.29 TWh per year with its 582 wind turbines. Compare that to the biggest Palo Verde nuclear power plant which generates 33.7 TWh annually — more than 10 times as much.
Then you have the wind turbines disposal problem. While some components can be recycled, used wind blades that do not fall into the sea (such as the sharp fiberglass shards that have been washing ashore on the once-pristine coast of Nantucket island, Massachusetts) are usually thrown into landfills. The blades are built for durability so they use materials that are difficult to separate and recycle. This means that the US is projected to have about 20% of the world’s blade waste of over 47 million tons by 2050. Ouch.
According to the American Bird Conservancy, wind turbines are killing over a million birds a year, along with hundreds of thousands of bats which are crucial in pest control. Offshore wind companies, such as Atlantic Shores and Orsted’s Ocean Winds, actually request permission in their environmental impact statements to harm whales, dolphins, seals and porpoises through sound waves produced. And the EPA says no problem.
Even if all of the above could be removed, you still have the unreliability of wind power. Because the wind does not always blow, these turbines are running at maximum power only about 35% of the time. Compare that to nuclear power plants with a capacity factor of 93% or natural gas power plants built after 2010, which run 64% of the time.
Because the wind doesn’t always blow, on low demand days, the wind might generate unnecessary power; and during peak usage periods, turbines might generate nothing. When the wind stops, smaller, less-efficient natural gas power plants kick in, increasing your electricity costs. (How does any of this make rational sense?)
Here's the real kicker. If the governments were not subsidizing these windmills, they would not be built. Any good business person would tell you that they would not give a good return on investment. For instance, renewable energy sources, including wind energy, will receive an estimated $425 billion in subsidies between 2023 and 2033 in addition to about $200 billion in other green energy subsidies.
And in some states, wind energy has benefited hugely from renewable portfolio standards regulations, which require a share of electricity sales to come from renewable energy sources. California aims to obtain 60% of its electricity from renewables by 2030 and 100% by 2045 — although it hasn’t ruled out purchasing power made by legacy fuels from other states. What idiocy.
Let politician remove all of our taxpayer money from the wind industry and see how fast it dies.