Another Problem with Wind Energy
Have you heard how they dispose of wind turbine blades??See that thing in the top right of the photo, above? It is a CAT-9 bulldozer. It is burying windmill blades. The lifespan of a modern, top quality, highly efficient wind turbine is roughly 20 years. After that, what happens to those gigantic fiber composite blades??Those blades are anywhere from 120 ft. to over 200 ft. long and there are 3 per turbine. And that's with only 7% of the nation currently being supplied with wind energy. Just imagine if we had the other 93% of the nation using wind. We are already running out of landfill spaces for these blades, imagine 20 years from now. Then 20 years after that, and 20 years after that, and so on.?Why? These blades need to be disposed of and there is not much scrap value as thermoset plastics are almost impossible to recycle and is there presently no way that they can be economically reused, refurbished, reduced or repurposed.? Most turbine blades that reach the end of their lifespan are left to accumulate in landfills throughout the world. Surely you have also seen those that are just left in place to rot as eye sores.
And they call this “green energy”.??
Right now the average wind farm has roughly 150 turbines.?Each wind turbine needs 80 gallons of PAO (polyalphaolefin) synthetic oil based on crude.?Thus for each farm, that is 12,000 gallons per year.?It is estimated that a little over 3,800 turbines would be needed to power a city the size of New York. That's 304,000 gallons of refined oil for just one city.?That’s 25+ Turbine FARMS.?Calculate that for every city across the nation, large and small, and find the grand total of yearly oil consumption from "clean" energy.?In addition, each turbine requires a footprint of 1.5 acres, so a wind farm of 150 turbines needs 225 acres.?Therefore, in order to power a city the size of NYC you'd need 57,000 acres;?and who knows the astronomical amount of land you would need to power the entire US. All of which would have to be clear-cut, because trees create a barrier & turbulence that interferes with the 20mph sustained wind velocity necessary for the turbine to work properly (also keep in mind that not all states even have winds strong enough to support the use of wind turbines). ?
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Please know that the generator and switching equipment operate at high power and voltage. Everything in the windmill nacelle is compact due to limited space, thus there's danger of arcs and electrical fires. This is prevented by putting all the electrical equipment in a pressure vessel filled with sulfur hexafluoride, a synthetic gas that has dielectric properties that suppress arcs and fires.???Problem is, windmills leak this gas, roughly a pound each per year. SF6 has an atmospheric lifetime of 3,200 years and is 22,800 times more effective as a greenhouse gas than carbon.?How dare they call this “green energy”!?
?These statistics and more info can be found at Stop These Things, CFACT.org, ?Spiegel or Refugio County Windmilll Coaltion.
?There are some additional facts and quotes in the back of my book, “Gary the Go-Cart: Wind Blows”, however that book just focuses on their unreliability and how many birds are killed by wind energy.?As you can see, there are an awful lot of reasons to “just say no”.??
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1 年Well done Barbara! Written like a certified chemical engineer. I did not know these details. It is always in the details! I am doing the same for solar power. The panels to supply all US electricity would cover half the 48. Move out all the animals and farms. Besides CO2 is harmless green plant food! Denying plants their food so they can supply us food and O2 is about as stupid as it gets. We all learned this in 10th grade when public schools taught useful things. Keep up your good work dear friend and ally. Pierre R Latour, PhD ChE, PE CA & TX, Cpt US Army Ordnance Corps Ret.
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2 年This is a great example of the improving way (not perfect way) we continue to generate energy. Humans have a destabilizing impact on the ecosystem and have had for centuries. "Green Energy" isn't something meant to negate or reverse that, it is meant to reduce it and it does reduce it dramatically. This article lacks proportionality.
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3 年Not to mention how turbine’s frequently ignite and burn up
Conservation and environmental champion
3 年Let’s talk about the millions of tons of materials residing in landfills originating from ALL electricity generating sources. Green, brown, or purple. This is just the tip of the iceberg. I’m unimpressed with this not-so-enlightening post.
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3 年Thanks for pointing this out, I never thought about the blades wearing out. Where are the recyclers and what happens when the earth is no longer viable for food production?