https://vtdigger.org/2016/04/29/sunedison-owner-of-sheffield-wind-farm-goes-bankrupt/
Posted on 08/10/2016 9:36:26 PM PDT by Ray76
Wind turbines are the most visible symbols of the quest for renewable electricity generation. And yet, although they exploit the wind, which is as free and as green as energy can be, the machines themselves are pure embodiments of fossil fuels.
If wind-generated electricity were to supply 25 percent of global demand by 2030 [] would require roughly 450 million metric tons of steel.
A lot of energy goes into making steel.
To make the steel required for wind turbines that might operate by 2030, you’d need fossil fuels equivalent to more than 600 million metric tons of coal.
A 5-MW turbine has three roughly 60-meter-long airfoils, each weighing about 15 metric tons. They have light balsa or foam cores and outer laminations made mostly from glass-fiber-reinforced epoxy or polyester resins. The glass is made by melting silicon dioxide and other mineral oxides in furnaces fired by natural gas. The resins begin with ethylene derived from light hydrocarbons, most commonly the products of naphtha cracking, liquefied petroleum gas, or the ethane in natural gas.
[T]o get 2.5 TW of installed wind power by 2030, we would need an aggregate rotor mass of about 23 million metric tons, incorporating the equivalent of about 90 million metric tons of crude oil.
[F]or most of these energies—coke for iron-ore smelting, coal and petroleum coke to fuel cement kilns, naphtha and natural gas as feedstock and fuel for the synthesis of plastics and the making of fiberglass, diesel fuel for ships, trucks, and construction machinery, lubricants for gearboxes—we have no nonfossil substitutes that would be readily available on the requisite large commercial scales.
For a long time to come—until all energies used to produce wind turbines [] come from renewable energy sources—modern civilization will remain fundamentally dependent on fossil fuels.
(Excerpt) Read more at spectrum.ieee.org ...
Part of a series of five posts:
To Get Wind Power You Need Oil
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3458518/posts
Reliability of Renewable Energy: Wind
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3458519/posts
Deep De-Carbonization Would Increase Electricity Costs 20–90 Percent, Says J.P. Morgan
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3458520/posts
Electricity Prices Soaring In Top Wind Power States
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3458521/posts
MidAmerican Energy customers rattled by electric rate hike
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3458522/posts
Ray - Excellent post!
It never ceases to amaze me that wind and solar power advocates Never provide full disclosure about how much their pet “green power” technologies Really cost.
It’s economic ROI math pure n simple.
RE: “art of a series of five posts:
To Get Wind Power You Need Oil
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3458518/posts
Reliability of Renewable Energy: Wind
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3458519/posts
Deep De-Carbonization Would Increase Electricity Costs 20–90 Percent, Says J.P. Morgan
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3458520/posts
Electricity Prices Soaring In Top Wind Power States
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3458521/posts
MidAmerican Energy customers rattled by electric rate hike
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3458522/posts";
And we learned here on FreeRepublic years ago that a good number of the wind turbines are offline for maintence or whatever and aren’t even moving when you drive by. Another poster followed that with “you would be surprised at the number that are moving are just for ‘show’.”
https://vtdigger.org/2016/04/29/sunedison-owner-of-sheffield-wind-farm-goes-bankrupt/
Thank you for the post. Essential reading!
FReegards ‘Pod.
But in science class it’s racist to say wind power needs petroleum products.
Dittos to the both of you and, like both of you, I’m constantly amazed by some of the dunderheaded posts/memes that show up from “progressive greenies” on places like Facebook. My usual response to them is “Energy Density...look it up” and I really want to append “...bitches” at the end of the response.
OK!! Everybody pay attention!
Lesson for today:
1. The sun is 1,300,000 times as big as the earth.
2. The sun is a giant nuclear furnace that controls the climates of all its planets.
3. The earth is one of the sun’s planets.
4. The earth is a speck in comparison to the size of the sun.
5. Inhabitants of the earth are less than specks.
Study Question: How do less-than-specks in congress plan to control the sun?
Why haven’t some physicists/astronomers calculated the total energy received by the earth from the sun in one year - and compared that to the total energy produced by man on the whole planet for one year?
Pretty sure it would show man’s portion is incredibly small.......
- old man who once taught science in public schools.....
Passive solar design gives 1000 times more bang for the buck than any alt energy.
Wind power is only practical in a few places on earth.
Solar panels are a decent supplement but not when done as solar farms. Best for individual use and will be better when they start replacing roofing components and work best when considered as part of the original house and landscaping design. House facing south, trees planned properly. The right appliances need to be chosen and some things like elec dryers, elec heat, shop equip etc just use too much to be practical for solar.
We just got electric a month ago, after having lived off grid for 5 years.
If anyone wants to toy around with diy wind turbines, http://www.scoraigwind.com/ is the foremost info source. Hugh Piggot the author of Wind Turbine Recipe Book, avail in Metric and Imperial unit.
Also in the US is the two Dan’s. http://otherpower.com Dan Bartmann and Dan Fink, and the book is Homebrew Wind Power. They started with Craig Hugh Piggot’s info.
See there? An ‘old man who once taught science in public schools’ knows better than the man-made global warming hoax!
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