Robert Bridge: Wind power is not the harmless energy source liberals said it was

Illegal logging, huge decommissioning costs, and even ecological damage plague the supposedly ‘green’ generators.

They may appear to be innocuous – even elegant – on the landscape as they collect power from the currents, but wind turbines have their own set of problems that environmentalists wish to ignore due to their eco-virtue-signaling.

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”.

Craig Rucker: President Trump gets it on wind

President Trump famously predicted that Americans would “get tired of all the winning.”

This is a big win for America, though we at CFACT don’t expect to tire of winning just yet.

Ian Bradford: We almost had a power crisis. Here’s why.

I was listening to the radio on Thursday night the 9th May when it was announced in the news broadcast at 10 pm that it would be very cold overnight and in the morning, and that everyone was asked to conserve power between 7am and 9am next morning. Out of the blue came the statement- “there is no wind”! Did anyone hear that, and wonder what that was about? Well it was very clear to me what that was about. It meant that the wind farms were near useless. They couldn’t produce any power to help out the national grid, and of course it had been dark all night and so solar panels were not much use either. 

How many times has it been said: “When the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine there is no power.”

Ian Bradford: The Wind Farm Situation. It’s Not getting Any Better - Part Two.

In part 1, I mentioned the millions of birds and bats sliced up by wind turbine blades.  I should have mentioned the insects too, which all perish under the whirling blades.  For the sea built turbines, crabs are immobilised and crayfish (lobsters), are born deformed. In NZ we have the tourist attraction called the Kaikoura whale watch. Visitors go out to sea in boats run by the tourist company, and view whales frolicking about.  Along the East coast of the United States there is also a booming tourist industry of whale watching.  The difference is that all the whales being watched are dead, washed up on the shore after dying from the effects of the construction of offshore wind turbines. In fact, 72  whales have died on the east coast in a year. These are all large whales. Many are North Atlantic right whales of which there are only 340 left.  

Ian Bradford: The PM reveals plan to accelerate NZ’s switch to wind and solar

The PM  Chris Hipkins has revealed the Government’s plan to accelerate  NZ’s switch to clean energy with wind and solar. 

Many more of these unreliable, polluting, environment destroying projects, will soon take up more of our valuable land. 

“These projects can proceed faster, provided they meet the normal environmental tests as determined by expert consenting panels.”  So say the government. 

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.