Chris Morrison: Shock New Report Lays Out the Full Scale of Environmental Damage Caused by Onshore Wind Turbines

Fresh insights into the ecological devastation caused by onshore wind turbines around the world are contained in a shocking new paper published last month by a group of ecologists in Nature. The paper is paywalled and has attracted little mainstream media interest, but it highlights research that illustrates that the effect of utility-scale wind energy production “can be far reaching and sometimes have large and unexpected consequences for biodiversity”.

Viv Forbes: Misplaced Green Energy

Why are we always putting green energy assets in all the wrong places?

The main electricity demand comes from big cities and their industries, so the electricity generators should be nearby, thus reducing capital costs and transmission losses, and supporting local jobs. 

Ian Bradford: The wind and solar transition is using up our valuable resources - all for nothing

The anthropogenic climate change cult reckons we are well on our way to an all wind and solar powered future. But the demand for raw materials like copper, is already outstripping supply. Inside each wind turbine there is a range of rare minerals which are quickly becoming rarer. But there are also a number of more common minerals like iron ore used to make steel for the tower, and copper for the turbine generators, cabling and wiring, and the miles of transmission lines. The same applies to the seas of solar panels.

Ian Bradford: New Zealand should stop building more wind and solar farms immediately

I have written before under the heading: ‘There is nothing good about wind farms.” The same can be said about solar farms.

Just to recap:

1 They either take up a huge amount of valuable farm land or large areas of often native forest, are blitzed to make way for them.

Viv Forbes: First Aid for Flicker Power

Wind and solar energy have a fatal flaw – intermittency.

Solar generators won’t run on moon-beams – they fade out as the sun goes down and stop whenever clouds block the sun. This happens at least once every day. But then at mid-day on most days, millions of solar panels pour so much electricity into the grid that the price plummets and no one makes any money. And after a good hailstorm they never work again.

Ian Bradford - The Wind Farm situation: It’s not getting any better

Part 1 - I have written previously under the heading: “Is there anything good about wind farms?”

Let’s recap on some of the problems I outlined then.

Ian Bradford: More problems with wind farms. Wind Turbine Blades are Shedding Tonnes of Toxic Microplastics.

I recently wrote an article entitled: “ Is there anything good about wind farms.”

There was the amount of land  taken,  the devastation of the landscape,  the necessity to shift animal and insect populations from the site,  the noise from the turbines,  fires in turbines releasing black toxic smoke, pieces of blades flying off,  and the decimation of millions of birds and bats, to name but a few of the problems. 
But now, a more serious problem is becoming apparent.  We know that burying turbine blades in landfills will leave a toxic legacy for a very long period of time.   However, a recent  Norwegian study  from July 2021 found that turbine blades suffer what is called leading edge erosion, due to wind, rain, and hail. The concern is how far this material goes, and what it is composed of. 

Ian Bradford: Is there anything good about wind farms?

Recently, there was a headline in a newspaper. It said:  Wind Farm to be Built.  The farm was to have 22 turbines and stretched an unbelievable 7.5 km along a ridge.   The paper went on to say that the farm would generate 93 Megawatts when at full capacity. That would be enough to power 40,000 homes.  The truth is it will hardly ever be at full capacity. In fact, most of the time it will be well below that. If the wind is too strong they will be disabled. If the wind doesn’t blow, then there will be no power. The supply will be very unreliable. Worldwide, the average output of a wind farm is just 25% of its theoretical capacity.  So this particular wind farm will power 10,000 homes NOT 40,000 as stated.