THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XIII, Issue # 217, September 1, 2011
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
WIND POWER -- OUR LEAST SUSTAINABLE ENERGY OPTION:
From a Land Use, Economic, Environmental, or Raw Materials
Perspective, Wind Power Is Unsustainable.
By Paul K. Driessen
THE SHORTCOMINGS OF WIND POWER AS A SOURCE OF ENERGY IN MODERN SOCIETY -- THE MOST SERIOUS WEAKNESSES
GROUPED INTO EIGHT CATEGORIES OF CONCERN:
[1] THE IMPACT OF WIND TURBINE INSTALLATIONS ON THE
AVAILABILITY OF LAND FOR USES OTHER THAN ENERGY PRODUCTION; [2] THE VAST AMOUNTS OF RAW MATERIALS (EG.,
STEEL, COPPER, RARE EARTH METALS, FIBERGLASS, CONCRETE, & REBAR) REQUIRED TO BUILD, OPERATE, & MAINTAIN THE
WIND TURBINES, TOWERS, & BASES; [3] THE PERPETUAL SUBSIDIES THAT TAXPAYERS & CONSUMERS MUST PROVIDE TO
PROP UP WIND PROJECTS, WHICH CANNOT SURVIVE WITHOUT STEADY INFUSIONS OF MONEY VIA FEED-IN TARIFFS, TAX
BREAKS, & DIRECT PAYMENTS; [4] THE HUGE AMOUNTS OF ENERGY CONSUMED IN THE PRODUCTION, TRANSPORTATION,
& INSTALLATION OF WIND TURBINES, TOWERS, BACKUPS, & TRANSMISSION LINES; [5] THE GROWING BODY OF EVIDENCE
THAT WIND TURBINES CAUSE SIGNIFICANT HEALTH PROBLEMS; [6] THE ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION & CARBON
DIOXIDE EMISSIONS CAUSED BY THE TURBINES; [7] THE LOSS OF 2.2 TO 3.7 TRADITIONAL JOBS FOR EVERY "GREEN" JOB
CREATED; [8] THE UNRELIABILITY OF WIND POWER & THE PROHIBITIVE COSTS OF THE ELECTRICITY IT PRODUCES.
FULL STORY:
President Obama and a chorus of environmentalists, politicians, corporate executives, and bureaucrats are perennially
bullish on wind power as the bellwether of our “clean energy economy of the future.”
In reality, wind energy may well be the least sustainable and least eco-friendly of all electricity options. Its shortcomings
are legion, but the biggest ones can be grouped into eight categories.
Land. As American humorist and philosopher Will Rogers observed, “They ain’t making any more of it.” Wind
turbine installations impact vast amounts of land, far more than traditional power plants.
Arizona’s Palo Verde nuclear plant generates 3,750 megwatts of electricity from a 4,000-acre site. The 600-MW John Turk
ultra-supercritical coal-fired power plant in Arkansas covers part of 2,900 acres; two 600-MW coal-fired units in India use
just 600 acres. Gas-fired units like Calpine’s 560-MW Fox Energy Center in Wisconsin require several hundred acres. All
generate reliable power 90-95% of the year.
By contrast, the 600-MW Fowler Ridge wind installation (355 turbines) spans 50,000 acres of farm country along
Indiana’s I-65 corridor. The 782-MW Roscoe project in Texas (627 turbines) sprawls across 100,000 acres. Oregon’s
Shepherds Flat project (338 gigantic 2.5 MW turbines) covers nearly 80,000 wildlife and scenic acres along the Columbia
River Gorge, for a “rated capacity” of 845 MW.
The Chokecherry-Sierra Madre project will blanket some 320,000 acres of sage grouse habitat and BLM land in Wyoming
with 1,000 monstrous 3-MW turbines, to generate zero to 3,000 MW of intermittent power. That’s eight times the size of
Washington, D.C., to get an average annual output one-fourth of what Palo Verde generates 90% of the time. But C-SM
has already received preliminary approval from BLM.
To replace just 20% of the United States’ 995,000 MW of total installed generating capacity, we would need to blanket an
area the size of Kansas with wind turbines, and then add nearly a thousand 600-MW gas-fired backup generators … and
thousands of miles of new high voltage transmission lines.
Raw Materials. Wind turbine installations require vast amounts of steel, copper, rare earth metals, fiberglass,
concrete, rebar, and other materials for the turbines, towers and bases.
A single 1.7 MW wind turbine, like 315 of the Fowler Ridge units, involves some 365 tons of materials for the turbine
assembly and tower, plus nearly 1100 tons of concrete and rebar for the foundation. Bigger units require substantially
more materials. Grand total for the entire Fowler wind installation: some 515,000 tons; for Roscoe, 752,000 tons; for
Shepherds Flat, 575,000 tons; for Chokecherry, perhaps 2,000,000 tons. Offshore installations need far more raw materials.
To all that must be added millions of tons of steel, copper, concrete, and rebar for thousands of miles of transmission
lines – and still more for mostly gas-fired generators to back up every megawatt of wind power and generate electricity
the 17 hours of each average day that the wind doesn’t blow.
Money. Taxpayers and consumers must provide perpetual subsidies to prop up wind projects, which cannot
survive without steady infusions of cash via feed-in tariffs, tax breaks, and direct payments.
Transmission lines cost $1.0 million to $2.5 million per mile. Landowners get $5,000+ per turbine, plus royalties on all
energy produced from the turbine, plus payments for every foot of access road and transmission lines. However,
taxpayers pay more, while the landowners’ neighbors suffer property devaluation, scenic disruption, noise, health
problems, and interference with crop spraying, but no monetary compensation. Direct federal wind energy subsidies to
help cover this totaled $5 billion in Fiscal Year 2010; state support added billions more; still more billions were added to
consumers’ electric bills.
The Other People’s Money well is running dry. The “manmade catastrophic climate change” thesis behind the wind
energy campaign is in shambles. Voters and consumers are understandably fed up.
Energy. Mining, quarrying, drilling, milling, refining, smelting, and manufacturing operations make the
production of metals, concrete, fiberglass and resins, turbines, and heavy equipment to do all of the above very
energy-intensive. Ditto for transporting and installing turbines, towers, backups, and transmission lines. That takes real
energy: abundant, reliable, affordable – not what comes from wind turbines.
In fact, it probably requires more energy to manufacture, haul, and install these monstrous Cuisinarts of the air and their
transmission systems than they will generate in their lifetimes. However, no cradle-to-grave analysis has ever been
conducted, for the energy inputs or pollution outputs. We need one now.
Health. Whereas environmentalists garner scary headlines over wildly speculative claims about health dangers
from hydraulic fracturing (to extract abundant natural gas for wind turbine backup generators), they ignore and dismiss
a growing body of evidence that wind turbines cause significant health problems.
Principal health issues are associated with noise – not just annoying audible noise, but inaudible, low-frequency
“infrasound” that causes headache, dizziness, “deep nervous fatigue,” and symptoms akin to seasickness. “Wind
turbine syndrome” also includes irritability, depression, and concentration and sleep problems. Others include “shadow
flicker” or “strobe effect” from whirling blades, which can trigger seizures in epileptics, “vibroacoustic” effects on the
heart and lungs, and non-lethal harm to animals. Serious lung, heart, cancer, and other problems have been documented
from rare earth mining, smelting and manufacturing in China, under its less rigorous health, workplace, and
environmental regulations.
To date, however, very few health assessments have been required or conducted prior to permit approval, even for
major wind turbine installations. Perhaps the trial lawyers’ guild could redress that oversight.
Environment. Raptors, bats, and other beautiful flying creatures continue to be sliced and diced by wind
turbines. Thankfully, the Bureau of Land Management has included an “avian radar system” to track the slaughter
within its 500-square-mile Chokecherry region – and banned mining among the turbines.
Wind turbines are supposed to reduce pollution and carbon dioxide emissions. But, because backup generators must
repeatedly surge to full power and back to standby, as wind speed rises and falls, they operate inefficiently, use more
fuel and emit more – much like cars forced to stop repeatedly on freeways.
Jobs. The myth of “green jobs” is hitting the brick wall of reality. While the turbines are installed in the U.S.A.
and E.U., far more numerous mining and manufacturing jobs are in China, where they are hardly “green.” As Spanish
and Scottish analysts have documented, the “green” installer and maintenance jobs cost up to $750,000 apiece – and
kill 2.2 to 3.7 traditional jobs for every “eco-friendly” job created.
Electricity Costs & Reliability. Even huge subsidies cannot cure wind power’s biggest defects: its electricity
costs far more than coal, gas, or nuclear alternatives – and its intermittent nature wreaks havoc on power grids and
consumers. The problem is worst on hot Summer afternoons, when demand is highest and breezes are minimal. Unable
to compete against cheap Chinese and Indian electricity and labor, energy-intensive industries increasingly face the
prospect of sending operations and jobs overseas. Bayer Chemical’s warning that it may have to close its German
facilities is just the tip of the iceberg.
When it comes to wind, Nat King Cole might have sung:
“Unsustainable that’s what you are,
Unsustainable though near or far.
Unsustainable in every way,
And forever more that’s how you’ll stay.”
Maybe not forever, but certainly for the foreseeable future, especially compared to increasingly abundant natural gas.
So take a hint from Spoon’s lively tune and “cut out the middleman.” Forge a direct relationship with energy you can
afford, energy that works nearly 24/7/365, energy that causes the least ecological damage and is far more sustainable
than wind power: the hydrocarbon, hydroelectric, and nuclear power that have sustained our society and brought
unprecedented health, prosperity, and living standards to billions.
Then help the planet’s least fortunate people to do likewise.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Political Environmentalism Versus Human Progress & Prosperity:
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
Political Economy -- Philosophies, Systems, & Public Policies:
Government, the Economy, & Economic Prosperity
Paul K. Driessen is Senior Policy Advisor for the Congress of Racial Equality, the Committee for A Constructive Tomorrow, and the
Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise. Driessen is author of Eco-Imperialism: Green Power, Black Death (2004).
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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