Resource Documents — latest additions
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Wind power harms the environment, fuels bad energy policies and poor investments
Author: Gitt, Brian
I love the *idea* of wind power. It sounds natural. Clean. Moral. But in reality, wind power harms the environment & people—especially low-income people. The myths about wind power are fueling bad energy policies & poor investments. The facts make it all look ridiculous.
2/ MYTH: wind power helps the environment.
Wind power requires excessive mining & land use. It industrializes coastline & kills wildlife.
Nuclear & natural gas power plants reduce CO₂ emissions more effectively.
3/ Wind turbines are made from minerals, petrochemicals, & fossil fuels.
Building a single 2 MW windmill uses 187 tons of coal—the equivalent of 125 pickup trucks full of coal.
Vaclav Smil: “What I See When I See a Wind Turbine”
4/ Building a 100 MW wind farm requires 30,000 tons of iron ore, 50,000 tons of concrete & 900 tons of non-recyclable plastics for the blades—all mined, transported & produced with hydrocarbons.
5/ Wind farms need 360× more land to produce the same amount of energy as a nuclear power plant.
A 200 MW wind farm spans 13+ sq miles (36 sq km). A natural-gas power plant with the same generating capacity could fit onto a single city block.
Dave Merrill, Bloomberg: “The U.S. Will Need a Lot of Land for a Zero-Carbon Economy”
6/ Wind turbines threaten endangered whales & fisheries, & kill hundreds of thousands of birds every year.
Robert Bryce, Real Clear Energy: “The Sierra Club Loves Wind Turbines, Not Whales”
7/ Each wind turbine blade is over 165 feet (50 meters) long & is made from toxic materials that can’t be recycled & that are getting dumped in landfills.
Tens of thousands of these blades will eventually enter the waste stream.
Chris Martin, Bloomberg: “Wind Turbine Blades Can’t Be Recycled, So They’re Piling Up in Landfills”
8/ There are better ways of reducing climate risk.
The carbon footprint of an offshore wind farm is 3 times larger than the carbon footprint of a nuclear plant.
Building wind farms channels resources away from better ways of reducing climate risk like nuclear power.
9/ MYTH: Wind power helps people.
Households pay more for electricity where there are wind & solar mandates:
German households saw their energy bills increase by 34% between 2010-2020.
American households in CA pay 80% more, & 11% more in 28 other states with mandates.
10/ Lower-income people subsidize wind-power tax credits for the wealthy.
“We get a tax credit if we build a lot of wind farms. That’s the only reason to build them. They don’t make sense without the tax credit.” —Warren Buffett
11/ The wind industry still needs subsidies even after billions in public handouts.
The US Treasury estimates the wind production tax credit will cost taxpayers ~$34 billion from 2020 to 2029. It’s by far the most expensive energy subsidy.
Chart created by @pwrhungry
12/ People who live near wind farms report sleep disturbances, headaches, dizziness, vertigo, nausea, blurry vision, irritability, & problems with concentration & memory.
13/ China takes up 7 spots among the world’s top 10 wind turbine manufacturers—where weak environmental regulations prevail & lower production costs are fueled by coal & cheap labor.
14/ Goldwind (2nd largest wind manufacturer in the world) has factories in China’s Xinjiang province, where hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs are working in slave labor conditions.
15/ MYTH – We can build enough wind farms to meet our energy needs.
People hate living near wind farms.
The farms are loud & large (each is 400-700 ft tall (122-213 m).
They destroy views & hurt property values.
16/ Public backlash against wind farms is growing in the US & Europe.
Local governments have rejected over 317 US wind projects since 2015.
17/ Offshore wind farms sidestep some community conflicts but have other problems.
Building offshore farms is 3× more expensive than onshore.
They threaten endangered whales, fisheries, ocean views & industrialize the coastline.
18/ Wind turbines generate electricity only ~30% of the time because the wind doesn’t always blow.
Every megawatt of wind needs a megawatt of fossil fuel power (usually natural gas) as a backup.
19/ MYTH – Better tech will solve problems with wind power.
The Betz limit in physics caps the maximum efficiency for a wind turbine. At most, only 60% of the kinetic energy from wind can be used to spin the turbine & generate electricity.
20/ Not all tech innovation makes things cheaper.
Offshore wind is getting more expensive. The cost has been increasing by 15% whenever capacity doubles.
Renewable Energy Foundation: “Wind Power Economics – Rhetoric and Reality”
21/ Some people think we’ll be able to store surplus wind energy in batteries. But the world’s largest battery factory (Tesla’s Gigafactory) would need 1,000 years to make enough batteries for 2 days’ worth of US electricity demand. And batteries cost 200× more than natural gas.
22/ Wind farms break down often & don’t last long.
Equipment failures & declining performance make the cost of operating a 16+ yr old wind turbine prohibitive.
Onshore turbines lose 37% output & offshore turbines lose 50% output at 16 yrs.
23/ Myths about wind power are driving bad investments & policy decisions.
Dollars spent on them cause harm & suffering to the poorest among us–a high cost for false moral comfort.
Let’s build an energy system that maximizes human flourishing & minimizes environmental harm.
24/ What We Need To Do:
End subsidies & incentives for wind & solar.
Retire the dirtiest coal power plants.
Build new efficient natural gas power plants (and hydro and geothermal where possible).
Reform regulations & build nuclear power plants.
Invest in energy R&D.
Brian Gitt
Feb 15, 2022, Twitter (@BrianGitt)
Comments on Notice of Intent to develop a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on US Wind Marwin and Momentum offshore wind Construction & Operations Plan, BOEM 2022-0025
Author: Stevenson, David
US Wind’s proposed offshore wind projects off the coast of Maryland will have direct impacts on Delaware as power is to be brought on shore, and turbines will be visible in Delaware. We represent over 1,400 individuals who have expressed concerns about offshore wind development to the Caesar Rodney Institute, and through the website Save Our Beach View. BOEM has stated they are accepting the Construction & Operations Plan (COP) as complete. We beg to differ and highlight below issues that need to be addressed before the COP is considered complete and before BOEM begins the EIS process.
Sincerely,
David T. Stevenson
Director, Center for Energy & Environment
Caesar Rodney Institute
Newark, Delaware
June 22, 2022
1. US Wind mistakenly claims emissions savings from the project, and emission savings are the core reason to build the project.
2. BOEM has no suitable study to determine the cost impact of viewshed loss.
3. Maryland shifts costs to, and interferes with interstate tourism in Delaware in violation of Interstate Commerce provisions of the US Constitution.
4. US Wind left several mitigation plans undefined and incomplete.
5. Cumulative impacts are missing from the COP.
6. Discussions of impacts on marine life are incomplete.
7. Commercial fishing will be abandoned in the lease area.
Conclusion
BOEM has a clear duty to protect historic and future users of the lease area from interference from industrial-sized wind turbines. Major negative impacts will be inflicted especially on commercial and for-hire fisheries, tourist viewshed enjoyment, vessel traffic, Coast Guard search and rescue operations, scientific research, and the endangered Northern Right Whale and other marine mammals. Fisheries face not only a direct loss of gear, but also increased risk of collision damage to their vessels, loss of life from hampered search and rescue operations, and loss of the scientific data needed to protect fisheries. Potential loses in tourism will exacerbate social injustice as losses will disproportionately impact lower-wage service workers in restaurants, hotels, and fishing tourism. The COP is missing key information and requires serious modification before BOEM can begin an Environmental Impact Statement.
Download original document: “Comments on Notice of Intent to develop a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on US Wind Marwin and Momentum offshore wind Construction & Operations Plan, BOEM 2022-0025”
Bhlaraidh wind energy facility – foundation construction
Author: Murform
2016 December 19 – Murform have recently secured this follow on project with RJ McLeod, following our success at Beinneun Wind Farm (which is less than 5 miles away).
Bhlaraidh Wind Farm is a 32 turbine site, situated in the Great Glen, just North West of Loch Ness. Due to its sensitive location, the site has been developed to cause minimal visual impact to the environment to avoid being seen from the main tourist routes and iconic attractions of the Great Glen. The sites remote location also provides it inherent challenges, for the supply of materials and access by labour to each turbine location, which will have to be overcome to achieve the projects required outputs.
Murform will construct the 32 bases, consisting of over 62 tonne of rebar and 580m³ of concrete in each base, with a strong effort to construct as many as possible before the winter weather sets in. To assist in this target, Murform have provided additional resources to the project. RJ McLeod will assist with full time cranes and also on site batching plants and trucks.
Foundation construction – Poland
Author: CTE Wind
