Posted on 07/22/2023 6:57:12 AM PDT by george76
Wind turbines, once touted by the few wealthy and less populated countries as a clean solution for electricity, are now becoming an eyesore, a hazard, and a significant environmental threat.
After decades of operating around the world for the few wealthy and less populated countries, wind turbines continue to have a live expectancy of about 20 years. To date there has yet to be discovered a financially viable means of recycling those wind turbines. As a result, today’s old wind turbines are being dumped into toxic waste dumps.
Because wind turbine blades are very difficult to recycle, the waste stream created by the retired blades is a mounting problem. Globally by 2050 projections are that there will be 43 million tons of blade waste produced EVERY YEAR — the equivalent of 215,000 locomotives.
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As wind farms age, the turbines begin to break down and require maintenance. However, due to the high costs associated with removing them, many companies are choosing to leave them in place. This poses several problems, including the potential for oil leaks from the turbines, and the overall negative impact on the landscape.
The first generation of wind turbines are starting to reach the end of their service lives, while others are replaced early to make way for newer technology – including longer turbine blades that can sweep more wind and generate more intermittent electricity – the question of what to do with their huge blades becomes more pressing.
These abandoned wind turbines pose significant environmental and safety risks, as they can leak toxic chemicals and other hazardous materials into the surrounding environment and can even collapse or catch fire.
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The life cycle for renewables runs from design, procurement and construction through operations and maintenance, and repair, as well as the life ending decommissioning and disposal .. and restoration of the landscaping back to its original pristine condition.
It’s time for those few wealthy governments to “clean up” their previous subsidized programs for intermittent electricity and act to subsidize the development of methods to properly decommission wind turbines before they become a larger environmental crisis.
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Consistent with the NIMBY actions in America to reject so-called renewable electricity, Sweden shocked Europe by abandoning ‘Unstable’ Green Electricity Agenda, and returning to Nuclear Power. Finance Minister Elisabeth Svantesson cited the need for a more “stable electrical supply system,” pointing out the inherent instability in wind and solar electricity generating sources.
The energy crisis in Europe is collapsing as countries like the Netherlands, Czech Republic, and Greece are all beginning to realize that everything that needs electricity is made with fossil fuels and they’re reverting. They’re also recognizing that all the components of wind turbines and solar panels are made from the oil derivatives manufactured from crude oil.
In addition, Sweden’s new government has abolished state subsidies for electric cars and plug-in hybrids.
Another reality is that all the mineral products and metals needed to make wind turbines, solar panels, and EV batteries are mined and processed in places like Baotou, Inner Mongolia, Bolivia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, mostly under Chinese control. Decommissioning and restoration of those mining landscapes back to their original pristine condition is not in the cards in developing countries.
Since Germany shut down its last three remaining nuclear power plants, the country has had to turn to its neighbors to keep the lights on. Germany has gone from being an exporter of electricity to an importer.
For profitability and sustainability, private industry business decisions are based on return-on-investments (ROI) which directly relates to affordable, reliable, continuous, and uninterruptable electricity to support their investments. Thus, Germany should look at Sweden who has just abandoned the idealistic goal of occasional electricity from wind and solar and committed to nuclear for electricity that is not only continuous and uninterruptible but emission free.
It is crucial that we address this issue and find sustainable solutions for decommissioning and recycling of these wind turbines. As a society, we must prioritize responsible and safe disposal of renewable electricity infrastructure to truly achieve a sustainable future.
Shockingly, the recycling of worn-out turbine blades, solar panels, and EV batteries, in the few wealthy and less populated countries that are subsidizing intermittent electricity is not yet in the cards!
🧐 but that’s oil!
Yes, ditto the solar cells. They are even worse!
What about the off shore turbines? They won’t be hauled back to land. Right to Davy Jones Locker where the can leak oil into the ocean.
One solution to the problem of old blades is to make every liberal scumbag store them in their yards.
" If the vessel is fiberglass, it's hauled, towed, scrapped of valuable parts, and — with no other options — dumped in a landfill. The cross-linked polyester and fiberglass composites of the fiberglass hull, ideal for strength and durability for a lifetime on the water, are not biodegradable and will sit in the landfill for centuries."
they dont care
the goal is to make electricity scarce
under the climate emergency
who is allowed to survive
will depend on your social credit score
If you check out Ted and Tedx talks, you’ll see a plethora of “ex anti nuclear activists” coming out in favor of it. For starters, it is statistically the most safe form of electric generation per KwH.
Completely agree. I no longer argue global warming with people, though I will occasionally throw out a link and tell folks to educate themselves, and take seriously what us hippies used to say - question authority.
Remember when people used to stamp that on dollars?
> take seriously what us hippies used to say - question authority <
“Question authority”, I had forgotten about that old saying. It’s a great phrase to use when talking with folks who mindlessly support the fascist left.
It just might get them thinking for themselves again.
“In addition, Sweden’s new government has abolished state subsidies for electric cars and plug-in hybrids.”
Sweden’s auto market saw plugin electric vehicle share continue to grow strongly in December, reaching a record 74.6%, up from 60.7% year on year. Full electrics alone took a record 51.3% share of the market.
https://cleantechnica.com/2023/01/03/plugin-evs-take-record-75-share-of-swedens-auto-market/
Thank you.
Is this a rhetorical question?
Geologist, Professor Ian Plimer, utterly demolishes the human-induced “climate emergency” fairy tale in three and a half minutes...
( video at link )
https://patriots.win/p/16bihrmd2e/geologist-professor-ian-plimer-u/c/
The thing that sticks in my mind from driving across the Texas panhandle years ago was the line of old Cadillacs buried in a nice row, end up, each parallel with the others and tilted a bit off vertical.
Maybe do the same with old turbine blades. Public art to depict a dead technology.
Hugo Chavez did that same thing in Venezuela.
The poor that voted for him got lots of cheap and reliable power. The wealthy that didn’t vote for him got unreliable and expensive power.
Obama/Biden are following the playbook from Venezuela.
Windmills were for powering water well pumps.
Electric cars were a stepping stone to get to the ICE vehicle.
They were displaced over a 100 years ago.
Add to that, the dims act like we are living in the 1920’s as far as race relations.
Source: https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2220
Love it
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