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Monday, June 1, 2020

The extremely dirty side of renewables

Materials needed 
to make wind turbines 
and solar panels, 
rely on mining and 
transportation 
equipment.

The equipment is made
with parts that require 
fossil fuels, and is
powered by fuels 
manufactured 
from crude oil.


An electric-car 
battery weighs 
about 
1,000 pounds -- 
and making one 
requires 
digging up, 
moving and 
processing 
more 500,000 
pounds of 
raw materials 
somewhere on 
the planet. 

Mining done with 
far from ideal
labor conditions, 
and usually loose 
environmental 
regulations, 
for the raw materials 
required for solar and 
wind renewable energy. 

“Green” goals require 
a massive worldwide
increase in mining for 
lithium, cobalt, copper, 
iron, aluminum, and other 
raw materials, such as:



Sixteen components 
needed to build 
wind turbines are: 

Aggregates and 
Crushed Stone 
    (for concrete), 

Bauxite 
   (for aluminum), 

Clay and Shale 
   (for cement), 

Coal, Cobalt 
   (for magnets), 

Copper 
   (for wiring), 

Gypsum 
   (for cement), 

Iron ore 
   (for steel), 

Limestone, 

Molybdenum 
   (for alloy in steel), 

Rare Earths 
   (for magnets & batteries), 

Sand and Gravel 
   (for cement & concrete),

Zinc 
   (for galvanizing steel).




Seventeen components 
needed to build 
solar panels are: 

Arsenic
    ( for gallium-arsenide 
      semiconductor chips ), 

Bauxite 
   (for  aluminum), 

Boron Minerals, Cadmium 
   (for thin film solar cells), 

Coal 
( the by-product coke 
is used to make steel ), 

Copper 
   ( for the wiring & 
      thin film solar cells ), 

Gallium 
   (for solar cells), 

Indium 
   (for solar cells), 

Iron ore 
   (for steel), 

Molybdenum 
   (for photovoltaic cells), 

Lead 
   (for batteries), 

Phosphate rock 
   (for phosphorous), 

Selenium 
   (for solar cells), 

Silica 
   (for solar cells), 

Silver 
   (for solar cells), 

Tellurium
    (for solar cells), and 

Titanium dioxide 
   (for solar panels).



These materials 
are mined throughout 
the world, including
Algeria, Arabia, Argentina, 
Armenia, Australia, Belgium, 
Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, 
China, Congo (Kinshasa), Cuba, 
Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, 
Greece, Guinea, Guyana, India, 
Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Italy, 
Jamaica, Japan, Kazakhstan, 
Madagascar, Malaysia, Mexico, 
Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, 
New Caledonia, Oman, Pakistan, 
Papua New Guinea, Peru, 
Philippines, Poland, 
Republic of Korea, Russia, 
Saudi Arabia, Sierra Leone, 
Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, 
Suriname, Sweden, Thailand, 
Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, 
United States, Uzbekistan, 
Venezuela, Vietnam, 
Western Sahara, and Zambia.



The useful life
of wind turbines 
is generally from 
15 to 25 years.

Then you have scrap 
covering a lot of land,
unless there is a 
funded  plan for
decommissioning. 

Mining projects, 
oil production sites, 
and nuclear generation 
sites, are all required 
to provide a plan for 
decommissioning 
and restoration of the 
site.

But not wind and 
solar farms -- 
at least not available 
for public review !

“Clean electricity”
requires extremely 
dirty mining, 
for the materials
needed for millions 
of wind turbines and 
solar panels, and 
their later disposal.