“There is of course one more concern. Wind transfers energy (heat) from one place on Earth to another. If enough windmills are built, they will slow the wind down and extract that energy from the wind. As result, the energy will not be released where it was meant to be. The air will be colder. How will this impact the precious climate that so many “scientists” are agog about? “
OK wise guy, I live in eastern New Mexico, the most windy place in the nation, and windmill Heaven. We have lots of windmills! Then how come we had triple digit heat most of the summer? We have enough windmills we should have been wearing sweaters all summer. And our heat should have been pushed up to Seattle WA. I know junk science when I see it.
OK wise guy, I live in eastern New Mexico, the most windy place in the nation,
You might get some argument from the entire state of WY
Each windmill produces, say, 10 kW. Every square yard of Texas generates 1 kW of heat from Sun. You need one windmill per 10 square yards to break even. I doubt that you have *that* many windmills and that much wind :-)
The climate of Texas won't be affected because it receives so much energy from the Sun. However it may well be that windmills placed in colder and more humid areas of the country, and especially at higher elevations, can nudge the temperature of the air below the dew point. In Texas you can't take enough energy out of wind to drop the air temperature from +100F to +65F (for 20% relative humidity.) However if the air is moist (say, 90% RH) then the same +100F air needs to be cooled only by 4 degrees for the dew to form. In other words, the effect will be seen only in areas of high relative humidity.
I don't know if this effect is negligible or not, but perhaps it should be looked into, along with the noise and with the danger to birds.
I personally prefer solar power because it can be produced without moving parts; it is more reliable this way. Windmills can work only in a narrow range of wind speeds, and they are complex mechanisms that are dangerous to install and service. There is a photo of a shorted generator earlier in this thread.