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Wind Power News: Opinions
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.
Un rapport explosif d’EDF amorce la fin des éoliennes et des panneaux solaires
“I consider the priority given to renewable energy, in a unilateral nuclear-renewable energy complementarity, to lead to variations in power that would be most appropriate to avoid, because they are never insignificant in terms of safety, particularly the control of reactivity, and in terms of the maintainability, longevity and operating cost of our installations.” Complete story »
Injured by Viking’s subaudible noise pollution
Westside resident Sally Huband has been forced to sell her house in East Burrafirth to escape subaudible acoustic emissions from the Viking turbines. Here she details her – so far – unsuccessful attempts to get the industry to act on the issue. In last week’s Shetland Times, David Thomson, the chief executive of Shetland Aerogenerators Ltd. and co-chairman of the Shetland Net Zero Energy Forum, asked us to inject some realism into our energy industry commentary. This I will do . . . Complete story »
Greenpeace co-founder says group is betraying its principles by peddling junk science as whales die
Since 2016, when acoustic sonar surveys required for the construction of 1,500 wind turbines began on the U.S. Atlantic coast, 174 humpback whales have washed ashore dead. This represents a 400% increase in mortality from previous years. And then there are the highly endangered North Atlantic right whales, of which less than 400 exist today. They recovered somewhat after being hunted to near extinction in the 1930s, but now they are thought to be declining. Federal government agencies such as . . . Complete story »
BOEM admits potentially irreversible harm to whales, fisheries, and seabirds
A government regulator recognizing offshore wind’s destructive environmental effects is as rare as a North Atlantic right whale. But a recent, 600-plus page report from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) admits that the offshore wind development planned for the New York Bight—the triangular area bordered by the New Jersey and Long Island coastlines—may irreversibly harm whales, commercial and recreational fisheries, and seabirds. The BOEM report is the agency’s first to evaluate the cumulative impacts of offshore wind development. . . . Complete story »
Time could be running out on RI offshore wind farms
The victory by President-elect Donald Trump shook up the political landscape − and it also turned on its head the U.S. energy terrain. The Journal asked days after the election, “Could a Trump presidency stop” offshore wind in Rhode Island? We are neither Trump supporters nor endorsers of any party or candidate. We are nonpartisan and we care about one issue: stopping the environmentally and economically disastrous construction of offshore wind turbines. Given that, we hope the answer to The . . . Complete story »
40 miljoen liter dieselverbruik voor onderhoud windmolenpark op Thorntonbank
[Maintenance of the Thornton Bank wind turbines uses an estimated 6.6 million litres of diesel fuel annually: 40 million litres since they began operation. In addition, the oil is changed every three to seven years. A wind turbine at sea contains approximately 2000 litres of ‘gear oil’ and 500 litres of hydraulic oil. There are also models with a total of between 1200 and 1500 litres of oil.] Terwijl wij straks verplicht met een dure elektrische wagen moeten rijden, verstoken . . . Complete story »
The approval of the Twyn Hywel wind farm ‘is more than just a planning decision’
Jenny Chryss, campaign lead for the group RE-think, which opposes the building of a network of wind farms across mid Wales, responds to the news that Bute Energy has been granted permission to build the Twyn Hywel Energy Park at Senghenydd, near Caerphilly. I think a lot of people will have been extremely surprised at the Inspector’s decision to approve Twyn Hywel. As Nation.Cymru’s article stated, this is a controversial proposal which was even opposed by some of the Welsh . . . Complete story »
‘Exploited by a large multi-national, aided by a council that failed to take account of local concerns’
As the Viking Energy wind farm and interconnector are officially activated, retired teacher Frank Hay, the chair of Sustainable Shetland – the campaign group that has been opposing the wind farm project for more than 15 years – reflects on how this was achieved and at what cost. After more than 20 years of discussion and planning we now have the predicted industrialisation of a significant area of the Central Mainland of Shetland. Many in the community did not think . . . Complete story »
Offshore wind — A new way of whaling
Around 1690 when Nantucket Island’s English settlers first ventured out in pursuit of the right whale, they didn’t have to go very far. As author Nathaniel Philbrick describes, “Every autumn, hundreds of right whales converged to the south of the island and remained until the early spring. Right whales—so named because they were “the right whale to kill”—grazed the waters off Nantucket as if they were seagoing cattle, straining the nutrient-rich surface of the ocean through the bushy plates of . . . Complete story »
Steve Martin: State Government has gone missing in wind farm debate
Has anyone in the Cook Labor Government been paying attention to what is going on with some of the planning issues around wind farms? Regional communities and their local governments, where most of the renewable heavy lifting will occur, are scrambling to deal with the flood of planning and development proposals heading their way from eager proponents keen to jump on the Government-mandated push for less carbon emissions in our energy grid. How can we be talking about putting wind . . . Complete story »
