Those consequences and more have become increasingly clear as time has progressed, and that is making it harder for developers to gain acceptance from the communities that would serve as hosts. Such pushback is likely to grow more strident in the coming years as it becomes clear to citizens that their state governments have failed to enact effective regulatory structures requiring timely and full retirement and remediation of these industrial sites when their useful life has expired. By that time, these sites will most likely have been sold off by the big developers who built them to smaller companies that will be unlikely to be able to bear the enormous costs involved in full removal and remediation.
But by then, it will be too late for the communities to protect their rights. The only real way to protect a city or county from these myriad impacts is to refuse to allow them to be built.
I've been arguing for ages that the companies that develop these industrial sites will be long defunct by the time the wind turbines are rusting hulks. The "wind farms" will have been sold and resold many times and nobody will want to on the hook for paying to remediate the sites. Within 20 years, we will have a million rusting wind turbine towers, failed generators, nacelles, and worn-out blades all over the land that cannot be economically torn down or recycled. There will be hundreds of millions of tons of concrete in the ground that cannot be dug up.
Environmental laws require you to post a surety bond before you open a new surface mine. That ensures the site will be remediated back to its original form after mining is completed. The same environmental laws should apply to wind and solar. These companies are getting a free ride so they can claim that they are economically competitive with conventional energy sources.
A conventional power plant is made mainly of steel and these are commonly torn down and the steel recycled. Sometimes plants are disassembled and then reassembled elsewhere. Decades ago, I worked on a used large industrial boiler in Durango, Mexico that had been purchased from a company in the USA, disassembled and rebuilt on the new Mexican site. That will not happen with wind turbines.
A few months ago we camped out in western Kansas. When I got up in the middle of the night to take care of my bodily functions, I was shocked to see red lights flashing in unison all across the horizon. Very creepy.
Concrete is inert, artificial rock. Why would we want to dig it up? Give it 50 years and people be excited to find the relics and foundations of this useless econazi crap..
The plan, if there is one, is to destroy all the conventional power possible and MAKE wind and solar the last man standing.
Nudge, Push, Shove. Guess where we are now?
Mankind has been using extensive solar energy for centuries.It powers our very bones. It’s called farming . Currently in Europe the elite are trying to drive farmers off their own land. Probably to seize that land for pennies on the dollar then resale it at a huge profit. The farmers are fighting back and putting on a very impressive resistance. Unless you get your news from alternative sources you probably have not heard about that.
Kills birds. Lots of ‘em.
btt
I have a huge Democrat cousin, all the kneejerk impulses and silly non-reasoning. Global warming coming, mail-in votes are good, etc. He says he’s not for open borders - but still votes Democrat. Hates Trump and the Republif*cks.
BUT does he drive an EV or have solar panels on his roof?? nope