General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Biden Plans Wind Farms Along Entire U.S. Coastline [View all]hunter
(38,310 posts)The only thing wind turbines are good for is prolonging our dependence on natural gas.
Gas is destroying the natural environment as we know it, and will probably destroy our world civilization.
In places that have encouraged wind development additional wind turbines are useless, producing excess electricity when nobody needs it, or no electricity when it's needed the most.
Aggressive renewable energy schemes in places like California, Germany, and Denmark have failed. The situation is so bad in Germany they've been forced to import additional natural gas from Russia at potentially grave political costs. Worse, they haven't even been able to quit mining and burning coal for power.
Nuclear powered France closed its last coal mine twenty years ago.
Here's some day-to-day charts anyone can look at:
California:
http://www.caiso.com/TodaysOutlook/Pages/supply.html
Germany:
https://energy-charts.info/charts/power/chart.htm?l=en&c=DE&stacking=stacked_absolute_area
France:
https://energy-charts.info/charts/power/chart.htm?l=en&c=FR&stacking=stacked_absolute_area
I live in California. On sunny days when the wind is blowing up to 85% of my electricity is renewable. But the sun doesn't shine and the wind doesn't blow 24 hours a day and seven days a week. At this moment 47% of my electricity is generated by gas power plants.
Wind turbines will not save the world.
As a radical environmentalist I oppose any wind and solar power schemes on previously undeveloped land or ocean sites.