Some research finds:
A five-megawatt wind turbine can require 700 gallons of lubricant, and costly synthetic fluids are preferred in the industry. Typically, oil change intervals are scheduled for from 9 to 16 months. .. Not to mention the fact that the large equipment needed to build these wind farms run on petroleum. As well as the equipment required for installation, service, maintenance, and eventual removal. And just exactly how eco-friendly is wind energy anyway? Each turbine requires a footprint of 1.5 acres, so a wind farm of 150 turbines needs 225 acres; In order to power a city the size of NYC you'd need 57,000 acres;https://www.savantlab.com/testing-highlights/going-green-wind-turbines-lubricant-testing/)
Right now the average wind farm is about 150 turbines. Each wind turbine needs 80 gallons of oil as lubricant and we're not talking about vegetable oil, this is a PAO synthetic oil based on crude... 12,000 gallons of it. That oil needs to be replaced once a year.... It is estimated that a little over 3,800 turbines would be needed to power a city the size of New York... That's 304,000 gallons of refined oil for just one city. - https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-wind-farms-patricia-pitsel-ph-d-
I mostly read 80 gallons, but hard to find any formal study. How Much Oil Do Wind Turbines Use?(https://www.windturbinemagazine.com/how-much-oil-do-wind-turbines-use/) does not even answer the question, buy that "The amount of oil used by a wind turbine varies greatly depending on the size and type of turbine. A small turbine for powering the home only requires a very small amount of oil, whereas the largest offshore wind turbines regularly need topping up with large amounts of oil and other lubricants to keep them running efficiently."
Also,
According to ewea.org, the average onshore wind turbine has a capacity of 2.5 to 3 MW and produces 6 million kWh a year. This works out at 16,438 kWh a day. According to Michael Bluejay, 0.0016 barrels of oil are required to generate 1 kWh, which works out at 26.3 barrels in order to match the output of the typical onshore wind turbine. The average offshore wind turbine is 3.6 MW in capacity and delivers 2.2 times more energy than its land locked brother thanks to lack of surface features which mess with the wind velocity. - https://www.quora.com/How-many-barrels-of-oil-does-the-average-wind-turbine-replace-in-a-dayAnd this massive study is relevant:
Environmental Risks, Fate, and Effects of Chemicals ... Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) (.gov) https://espis.boem.gov › ... PDF gallons of all oils from a wind turbine in the RI-MA WEA ... for each wind turbine ... catastrophic spill of 220 gallons of lubricating oil from a wind turbine inhttps://espis.boem.gov/final%20reports/5330.pdf
And,
Proper Lubrication is Key to Wind Turbine Longevity. - https://www.power-eng.com/renewables/wind/proper-lubrication-is-key-to-wind-turbine-longevity/
But let's check PolitiFact objectivity:
Swedish company Alpine Helicopter took a picture in 2015 of one of its helicopters using hot water to de-ice the blades of a turbine at a wind farm in Uljabuouda, Sweden. Using 300 gallons of fuel just to de-ice a single wind turbine, as the post claims, is an exaggeration.. An Alpine Helicopter spokesperson told The Associated Press in 2021 that the company used only hot water to melt the ice that forms on a wind turbine’s blades. [Dubious! Hot water sprayed on a below freezing day would lost temp fast, and take a lot of fuel to heat and lingering to spray]The hot water method is for turbines that lack an internal warming system or for when the system is not adequate to de-ice a turbine’s blades, the report said. Alpine’s 2016 report found that its helicopter uses about 640 gallons of fuel to fly the 310-mile round trip distance from Boden, Sweden, to the wind farm and to de-ice all 10 turbines over three days. [does not include lingering time, or fuel to heat the water]
PolitiFact found no credible source for the Facebook post’s other claim that the wind turbine uses 80 gallons of synthetic oil derived from 12,000 gallons of crude oil to operate....Wind turbines use oil to lubricate their moving parts — typically synthetic oil because its viscosity can withstand temperature extremes longer than natural mineral oil. However, the amount needed varies greatly depending on the turbine’s design — from 20 to 200 gallons, according to Climate Feedback, a website that fact-checks statements about climate change. - https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2023/mar/16/facebook-posts/meme-uses-faulty-math-claim-it-takes-300-gallons-j/
Whale Oil!!
Plenty of whales, natural oil.
Different reports depending on the size of the turbine, mostly what I found is that the gearbox holds about 700 - 800 gallons of oil. this must be the huge sky-scraper ones. Hard to get reliable, specific info, varies quite a bit. bottom line is leaks will and have occurred. They don’t work to well when the wind stops either. Oh, and it’s ok to kill eagles, hawks, songbirds and who knows what offshore.