The Dirty Truth About 'Green' Energy

Lots of good data comparing wind power to nat gas;

As of October 2015, the top 10 gas well in Washington County, Pa. were each averaging production over 12 MMcf/d. Some had been online for more than a year. The translation means it would take over 3,000  1.5 MW wind turbines to match the energy output of just these ten wells.[2] (In fairness, many of the new generation of turbines are rated at 2.5 to 3 MW of potential output, though many older ones are a lot less than 1 MW.)

Land, Construction, and Pollution

The clean energy advocacy group National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimates 10 MW of wind energy output requires one square mile (640 acres) of land. So to mimic the energy output of the 10 Marcellus above mentioned gas wells would require the development of 450 square miles (288,000 acres) of virgin land.[3] That’s lots of destruction of mountain ridges, open plains, not to mention the clearing for roads and dynamiting necessary for the turbine platform site construction.

Turbines are enormous. The GE-1.5 MW model stands 328 feet tall with a total weight of 164 tons. The Danish 1.8 MW turbine reaches 410 feet tipping the scales at 267 tons. The 2 MG Spanish Gamesa G87 weighs 334 tons and measures 399 feet. Imagine building roads to accommodate trucking in 140-foot blades, a 71-ton tower or a 56-ton nacelle? A lot of nature must be obliterated with very questionable returns.

The platforms made to anchor the turbine tower require more than one thousand tons of concrete and steel rebar, and depending on the land contour, are 6 to 30 feet deep. The manufacture of each one ton of cement emits 900 kg (kilograms) of CO2 into the atmosphere. That equates to uncountable millions of tons of carbon dioxide emissions attributable to wind energy.

Lots more good stuff in article, in the Huffington Post of all places;

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-dirty-part-of-green-energy_...

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Permalink Reply by rc clarke on June 21, 2016 at 5:12am
Not to mention the endless wild birds that are slaughtered. Or the pollution noise and blinking of the sun for local people. How long do they last. Seems to me that such huge blades moving at hundreds of miles an hour would be subject to failure, this is why 50 percent don't rotate, o and by the way there is no electricity when the wind doesn't blow. And the close out cost in carbon and $ is huge. Assuming the cost of closure is bonded and not left to the landowner like abandoned gas wells.
Permalink Reply by Vincent D Sherry on June 22, 2016 at 12:45pm

Fact is so called green energy would never have existed and could not exist at all with out coal, oil and gas..... 

Permalink Reply by frank speaker on June 22, 2016 at 1:04pm

So?

Permalink Reply by Jon on June 23, 2016 at 2:39pm

I'd imagine wind energy is probably stored in big batteries to even out the flow. We all know that batteries aren't made of toxic materials.

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