The whole concept was obviously absurd from the beginning.
Does shoveling up the dead birds count as a green job?
Wind farms enough to supply 100% of the USA’s energy needs would require a bit more land area than the state of Nevada.
Nukular power plants to supply 100% of the USA’s energy needs would need a bit less land area than Dallas County.
Such a plan would render Nevada uninhabitable by humans, but not Dallas County.
Commercial wind generators require a minimum wind speed of 10-12 mph or their electrical output is ZERO. There are very few places in the US that consistently have wind speeds of that magnitude and far fewer (if any) that have that much wind 24/7/365. So who’s going to pay for the overhaul to the power distribution infrastructure to get all the electricity from those few and isolated places with that much wind (because people as a rule avoid living in those places) to the many places where it is consumed?
Just like the wings on airplanes, when the atmospherics are right, the blades on windmills are highly susceptible to icing. Uneven ice loading (or uneven shedding of ice) can produce an imbalance that will cause the fan to sling itself apart. So even though the blades on commercial wind generators are equipped with heated anti-icing mats, as a self-preservation measure they are programmed to shut down whenever significant ice accumulation occurs.
They also are programmed to shut down whenever winds become abnormally high to prevent damage from overspeeding.
Which means that at times when the electricity they generate would be most desperately needed (winter ice and snow storms), they are likely to be offline.
Self-destructing wind generators: http://bit.ly/2pGOQkE
Because the intermittent failure of renewable sources (wind & solar) is GUARANTEED, the supply of current to a power grid must be stable and regular beyond what “renewables” are capable of. The Euros’ rule of thumb is that for every 100 Watts of renewables they use to power the grid, they must have a minimum of 80 watts (80%) available from conventional sources (nukular or dead dinosaurs) in a condition called “spinning reserve” that can come online instantaneously each time renewable power browns out. Otherwise, the grid is likely to collapse whenever the “renewables” take an unscheduled coffee break.
So not only do “renewables” NOT obsolete conventional power plants, they reinforce the need for them. There’s not been a single conventional power plant decommissioned anywhere in Europe because it was made obsolete by “renewables.” And there’s ZERO chance that they ever will reduce your energy bill by one red cent (unless you build your own personal wind farm) because you still will be paying for (at least) 80% of the old, conventional power system to remain in operation just so you can delude yourself into thinking you’ve done the planet a favor by “going green.”
Probably not, but Michelle Obama might be happy to recycle them into some school lunches. ;-)