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Wind Power News: Ecuador
These news and opinion items are gathered by National Wind Watch in its noncommercial educational mission to help keep readers informed about developments related to industrial wind energy. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions of National Wind Watch. They are the products of and owned by the organizations or individuals noted and are shared here according to “fair use” and “fair dealing” provisions of copyright law. The original articles, links to which are provided, may have additional links and photos and other media that were not included here.
Balsa wood logging for wind turbine blades is a nasty scene: Environmental degradation and human rights abuses abound
I get why the “green” energy narrative appeals to people. We do indeed need to de-carbonize our societies. We should leave fossil fuels in the ground. So people are relieved when presented with the idea that coal, oil and gas can be replaced by ostensibly “clean” alternatives like solar, wind, hydro and geothermal power, and battery storage.[1] For example, since electric vehicles lack tailpipe emissions, they must be a silver bullet. However, the narrow focus on greenhouse gases paints an . . . Complete story »
Ill wind: China, US, leading wind turbine manufacturers and U.S. energy provider linked to illegal logging in the Amazon
In order to construct their wind turbine blades, energy giants in the U.S., such as GE Vernova, and leading manufacturers in China, like Goldwind (金风科技) and Mingyang (明阳风电), appear to have relied for years on balsa wood sources that include timber stolen from protected forests and the exploitation of Indigenous communities in the Amazon. During a multi-year investigation, ILL WIND: From Amazon Forest Crimes in Ecuador to Wind Turbines in the U.S. and China, the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA US) . . . Complete story »
A green paradox: Deforesting the Amazon for wind energy in the Global North
What has the destruction of balsa trees in the Ecuadorian Amazon rainforest got to do with the wind power industry in Europe? As the international commitment to renewable energy has grown in recent years, the increase in wind farms has triggered a huge demand for balsa wood, leaving a trail of deforestation in its wake. Balsa wood is used in Europe, and also more intensively in China, as a component in the construction of the blades of wind turbines. Already-installed . . . Complete story »
A worrying windfall – The wind-power boom set off a scramble for balsa wood in Ecuador
In late 2019 loggers started arriving in Ewegono, a village of nine indigenous Waorani families on the Curaray river in the Ecuadorean Amazon. They were looking for balsa, a fast-growing species of tree whose wood is used in blades for wind-power turbines. There was a global shortage. At first, villagers “grabbed chainsaws, axes and machetes to cut it down”, says Saúl Nihua, Ewegono’s leader. The pay could be $150 a day, a fortune in a region where most people have . . . Complete story »
