TOTAL U.S. ENERGY USE
80% Fossil fuel sources.
8.6% Nuclear
11.4% All "renewables"
(solar and wind are barely over 3%)
U.S. ELECTRICITY only
(37% of total U.S. energy use)
64% Fossil fuel sources
20% Nuclear
7% Hydro
6.5% Wind
1.5% Solar
WIND ENERGY PROBLEMS:
Intermittent output.
Requires access to a
"shadow capacity",
typically an equal
"spinning reserve"
of natural gas-fueled
turbines, to balance
power grids when
wind conditions
are not optimum,
which is most
of the time.
Second-by-second
grid management
becomes increasingly
complex, and inefficient,
as more intermittent
energy sources are
added to the power
supply mix.
Fossil-fueled turbines
must be constantly
ready to go, when
needed to balance
the grid (power
generated equals
power being used).
The natural gas
spinning reserve
capacity means
two different
equal capacity
sources are
needed to do
the job of one.
Wind turbines are
also not long lasting:
A 2012 Edinburgh University
study of nearly 3,000 on-shore
British wind farms found that
turbines had a brief 12 to 15 year
operating life, not 20 to 25 year
lifespans assumed in government
and industry projections.
A typical turbine generated
more than twice as much
electricity during its first year
in use, than in it's 15th year of use.
Saltwater deterioration
for off-shore installations
is far worse.
Some environmentalists hate
windmills because they kill
bugs, which attracts birds
and bats, that are shredded,
which attracts large predator
birds, that are also shredded.
A Sierra Club official
described windmills as giant
"Cuisinarts in the sky".
Nearby landowners fight
wind projects in the courts,
because they look awful and
low "infrasound"
frequencies
even penetrate walls,
causing headaches,
nausea, sleeplessness,
and ringing in ears,
for some people.
Wind power
(and solar too)
also requires
huge amounts
of land, and expensive
transmission lines
to deliver electricity
from remote sites
( causing additional power
transmission losses. )
Two 2018 papers published
in the journals Environmental
Research Letters, and Joule, by
Harvard University researchers
David Keith and Gordon McKay,
concluded that transitioning
from wind or solar in the U.S.
will require 5 to 20 times
more land than
conventionally
thought.
GASOLINE REPLACEMENT,
MAKING HUNDREDS OF
MILLIONS OF VEHICLES
OBSOLETE
100% renewable energy
would also require
replacing petroleum-fueled
vehicles with plug-in electric
vehicles, that could
be recharged overnight ...
even when there's no sun,
and no wind ?
This is the
dream of a
green energy
fantasy land !