Today, I am ripping off a post made on Power Line Blog by John Hinderaker on a shocking revelation regarding wind farms and obsolescence. I beg John's forgiveness but what follows is a 100% transcription of his article:
The Environmental Fiasco of Wind Energy
Wind turbines only last for around 20 years, so many of them are now wearing out. That raises serious questions about disposal of defunct wind turbine parts. The turbines’ giant blades are not recyclable, so they must be dumped in landfills. The Sioux Falls Argus Leader reports on one South Dakota landfill that is saying no mas to wind turbine blades:
Why is a Minnesota wind farm trucking its used-up blades to South Dakota for disposal? I don’t know. The reason presumably is either regulatory or economic.
I doubt that many “green” energy advocates have thought seriously about the environmental problems associated with decommissioning wind farms. It isn’t just disposing of the fiberglass blades, as this 15-second video relates:
If a wind farm includes 100 turbines, that means that 500 million pounds of concrete (which off-gases CO2, by the way) have been poured into what previously was likely farm land. When the turbines are defunct after a mere 20 years, what will be done with hundreds of millions of pounds of concrete? To my knowledge, wind farm developers are not required to have any plan to reclaim the land when the useful life of the turbines has expired–which, in many cases, is right around the corner. My guess is that there is no plan whatsoever to deal with this issue.
Wind energy, like solar energy, is an environmental disaster–just one more reason why it should not be subsidized or mandated by government.
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