Critically Thinking about Wind and Solar
Are there any scientifically proven NET benefits from either? No!
This will be brief, as I’ll cut to the chase.
A journalist recently asked me the following thoughtful question:
“I’m working on an article that looks at the climate impacts of wind energy. There are some studies linked below (and you likely know others), that show that drawing kinetic energy from the wind at large scale will have an adverse impact on climate.
“Proponents of wind energy insist that human impacts on the climate are so catastrophic that we need to spend trillions to convert electrical generation to wind and solar. So, why are these (and other) negative impacts on the climate from wind being mostly ignored or dismissed as trivial? As wind energy spreads further and wider, these liabilities will get substantially worse.”
My answer:
You are asking a legitimate question — which has only one answer:
Wind and solar energy are NOT being promoted for any NET BENEFITS to ratepayers, taxpayers, citizens, businesses, the environment, or the climate!
The proof of that is that there are NO scientifically-proven wind or solar energy NET BENEFITS to ratepayers, taxpayers, citizens, businesses, the environment, or the climate!
For example, please read my powerful, short Report regarding the wind energy part, which includes the studies you cited, plus MANY more! Regarding Solar there are multiple major concerns that are almost never properly addressed in state regulations or local ordinances.
I’ll repeat the key part:
Wind and solar energy are NOT being promoted for any NET BENEFITS to ratepayers, taxpayers, citizens, businesses, the environment, or the climate!
The proof of that is that there are NO scientifically-proven wind or solar energy NET BENEFITS to ratepayers, taxpayers, citizens, businesses, the environment, or the climate!
Instead, wind and solar promotion is:
1) about virtue signaling,
2) taking advantage of the public’s technical illiteracy,
3) exploiting the weakness that many local communities are blinded by the money,
4) optimizing the reality that many citizens defer to authority,
5) leveraging the fact that critical thinking has become a lost skill,
6) evidence of the powerful influence of special-interest lobbyists on our legislators,
etc.
‘Nuff said.
Here are other materials by this scientist that you might find interesting:
Check out the Archives of this Critical Thinking substack.
WiseEnergy.org: discusses the Science (or lack thereof) behind our energy options.
C19Science.info: covers the lack of genuine Science behind our COVID-19 policies.
Election-Integrity.info: multiple major reports on the election integrity issue.
Media Balance Newsletter: a free, twice-a-month newsletter that covers what the mainstream media does not do, on issues from COVID to climate, elections to education, renewables to religion, etc. Here are the Newsletter’s 2023 Archives. Send me an email to get your free copy. When emailing me, please make sure to include your full name and the state where you live. (Of course, you can cancel the Media Balance Newsletter at any time - but why would you?
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Earlier comments were deleted. Wanted to offer our experience of heading a renewable energy development group for the military and elsewhere, that had to deal with the security of such systems in the face of attack. Solar and Wind, besides problems with helicopters, and VFR flying, are totally vulnerable to an air blast, as they depend on the environment for their energy. We ended up including them mostly for political reasons, except for hydro, geo, and waste, 24/7 and can be better protected. Coal is great, as it can be stored in large quantities, unlike electrons, at reasonable expense - but not PC these days. SMR (small nucs) are actually the most resilient of all, and there's one that now has NRC approval. 60 MW is too big for many applications, but you can walk away from it and it just cools down on its own, fuel every 5-10 years, with an EMP cover, electronics all burned in so very hard to Cyber. These are near bulletproof. Our wonderful solar/wind projects became more of a political tool to get rid of the power of the coal, gas, and oil boys, than the energy nirvana we thought in 2001.
Global ‘Stilling’: Is Climate Change Slowing Down the Wind?
From Yale360, Jim Robbins, September 13, 2022
As the Earth’s poles warm, researchers are predicting a decline in the planet’s wind speeds. This ‘stilling’ could impact wind energy production and plant growth and might even affect the Gulf Stream, which drives much of the world’s climate.
Last year, from summer into fall, much of Europe experienced what’s known as a “wind drought.” Wind speeds in many places slowed about 15 percent below the annual average, and in other places, the drop was even more pronounced. It was one of the least windy periods in the United Kingdom in the past 60 years, and the effects on power generation were dramatic. Wind farms produced 18 percent of the U.K.’s power in September of 2020, but in September of 2021, that percentage plummeted to only 2 percent. To make up the energy gap, the U.K. was forced to restart two mothballed coal plants.
The recent declines in surface winds over Europe renewed concerns about a “global terrestrial stilling” linked with climate change. From 1978 until 2010, research showed a worldwide stilling of winds, with speeds dropping 2.3 percent per decade. In 2019, though, a group of researchers found that after 2010, global average wind speeds had actually increased — from 7 miles per hour to 7.4 miles per hour.
Despite those conflicting data, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change forecasts slowing winds for the coming decades. By 2100, that body says, average annual wind speeds could drop by up to 10 percent.
Science is a messy process that requires transparency and open debate, but is closely controlled nowadays by politics. If the earth really is heating up, these people beating the drums for 100% "green energy" would be heading down the nuclear path at a dead run, but I betcha anything that thousands of those industrial scale wind turbines will keep going up. Follow the money.