The true costs
of wind energy
are often ignored
or deliberately
underestimated
Wind energy:
* intermittent
-- no one can predict
when a wind turbine
will generate electricity.
* very inefficient
source of power
* insufficient sites
available with adequate,
reliable wind
* large acreage required
to erect turbines
and harness wind
* large danger to bird
and bat populations
* danger to human health
from light flicker and
low frequency infrasound.
* added costs and
environmental impacts
of battery back-up systems,
and/or back up fossil fuel
power plants.
Large industrial wind turbines (IWT)
typically produce about 2.5 megawatts
of power when wind speed is between
8 and 25 miles per hour.
Most of the time wind turbines
are NOT producing that much power,
and sometimes they produce no power,
even at good locations.
Today’s wind farms have a
30–40% average “capacity factor.”
That means their average annual
output is only 30–40% of “nameplate”
capacity, or what they would produce
if the wind was blowing 8–25 mph
all the time.
As we erect more turbines,
they must be placed
in less optimal locations,
so capacity numbers will drop.
Today fossil fuel plants stand ready
as back-up when wind speeds decline.
But under the Green New Deal,
virtually all fossil fuels would be
eliminated.
So It would be impossible
to keep lights on all the time
without a lot more nuclear power,
which environmentalists hate,
even more than fossil fuels.
Wind energy facilities
must be located where
there's steady wind
most of the time,
and preferably where
no ice will ever form
on the blades.
Such areas exist along the
U.S. West Coast and a strip
of the Midwest from
Texas to the Dakotas.
75% of the contiguous 48 states
have only half the wind
of these optimum locations.
Offshore areas have higher
wind potential, but are at least
three times more expensive
to develop, and salt water will
significantly reduce
turbine lifespans.
Wind turbines must be placed far apart,
so they don’t interfere with each other's
“wind capture area.”
Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry,
addressing the 2018 America First
Energy Conference, said that generating
enough electricity to power
the Houston metropolitan area
would require almost 900 square miles
of wind turbines -- six-times more land
than an equivalent solar farm
of photovoltaic cells.
The US Energy Information
Administration (EIA) lies
when it claims that wind power
can generate electricity
for 8¢ per kilowatt-hour (kWh).
This lie assumes average wind turbine
lifetime is 30 years, the same as a
conventional fossil fuel power plant.
In reality, most turbines need an overhaul
after only 15 years, and fewer years
when located offshore in salt water.
The EIA number lies
by excluding the cost
of backup power.
The EIA number lies
by excluding the cost
of transmission lines
from wind farms
to distant cities.
The EIA number lies
by excluding all
government subsidies.
A 2016 Utah State University study
showed the following costs
omitted, or miscalculated,
by the EIA, for wind power:
(1)
15-years, not 30-year, life expectancies
( adds 7¢ per kWh ),
(2)
backup power
( adds at least 2.3¢ per kWh
for natural gas ),
(3)
transmission costs
( adds 2.7¢ per kWh ),
(4)
government subsidies
( adds 23¢ per kWh ).
All that raises the real cost
of wind power to a huge
43¢ per kilowatt hour
-- seven times the cost
of natural gas-generated
electricity!
Who could afford that ?
Green New Deal fans want wind farms
everywhere, but even environmentally
friendly communities don't want
wind turbines in their "back yards".
They spoil the landscape,
kill at least 150,000 to 350,00
US birds, and kill twice as many
US bats each year.
Spain’s Save the Eagles International
says industrial wind turbines
“kill millions of bats & birds,
worsening an environmental
and epidemiological crisis.”
The 2016 study:
“Multiple mortality
events in bats:
A global review”,
reports that since 2000,
industrial wind turbines
have been the leading cause
of bat mass mortality
in North America and Europe.
Bats are
our primary defense
to keep mosquito and
crop-damaging
insect populations
in check.
One bat can eat 500 to 1,000
mosquitoes, and other insects,
in just one hour, or about
6,000 per night.
Fish and wildlife specialists
were stunned by the number
of dead bats they found
at industrial wind turbines
in the eastern US.
About half were due
to barotrauma:
a bat only has to come close
to a spinning blade, and the
pressure change bursts
the blood vessels in its lungs.
Killing millions of bats results in
billions of extra mosquitoes.
Mosquito populations have
already increased up to tenfold
over the past 50 years,
mainly due to increased urbanization,
and reduced use of insecticides.
Noise generated by wind turbines
affects quality of life for people living
within a quarter-mile of a turbine.
Symptoms include annoyance,
stress, sleep disturbance,
headache, anxiety, depression
and cognitive dysfunction.
Low frequency infrasound
can travel many kilometers.
Infrasound goes
right through walls.
and pummels your body.
Governments have received
tens of thousands of complaints,
but generally ignore them.
There were also 192 deaths,
over the past decade,
primarily from massive failures
of turbine blades.
Those deaths prompted Finland,
Bavaria and Scotland to propose
legislation that no wind farm
be allowed within 1.2 miles
( 2 kilometers ) of any housing.