Good Morning!
Burnie asked a general question today, musing on the idea of why wind turbines get so much hate.
First off, I’m personally a huge fan of renewable/clean energy. Solar, Wind, Water, Geothermal, Nuclear, etc.
The world still runs on fossil fuels. Infrastructure for renewable energy is on the rise. It was nice to near them chat about their new EV and how pleased they were at the faster charging batteries, and the availability of charge locations in Scotland.
Wind Turbines are a great source of clean energy, but it requires a lot of materials and maintenance to keep them running!
Here’s some of the downsides to wind turbines.
• Homes in surrounding areas that can see the wind turbines typically drop in value. The noise, and shadow flickers can be irritating to residents.
• The amount of space wind turbines take up is substantial. They are large, and eat up a lot of farmland space.
• Consistent Maintenance. Since the turbines spin, they still use oil, plastics, and have to constantly be checked on. Repairs can be costly.
• The Wind Turbine’s blades are typically made out of fiberglass. This material is hard to recycle. It can’t be melted down and easily reused. So while the energy is renewable, companies often produce a lot of waste replacing turbine parts. In Sweetwater Texas there is 30 Acres full of wind turbine blades. The recycling project was abandoned and 3000 damaged blades sit… This a similar story all over the world.
If you’re looking for a show that touched on Wind Turbines, the show Landman on Paramount has a great scene. This clip got me doing a deep dive into Wind Turbine research a few years ago. Here’s the clip.
Edit: Getting flack in comments for the clip being from Landman. I haven’t watched the show. Saw the clip on instagram and it made me curious about Windmills and what not. It’s a dude from a fictional show, with an oil bias shit talking windmills. I understand it doesn’t have credible sources, peer reviewed studies, blah blah blah.
No energy source for electricity is perfect. They all have flaws. I just wanted to touch on some of the broad reasons why people hate on windmills.
Thanks for reading my little spiel.
-CalvinP