ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
Not as green as they appear
- Wind turbine farms actually cause localized temperature increases, which further dries an already arid landscape, increasing fire danger and limiting crop growth.
- Harvard researchers have found that the warming effect of wind turbines is larger than the effect of reduced emissions for the first century of its operation.
- Wind turbine and transmission line construction can easily damage underground water resources (wells and springs), especially if blasting is necessary to remove rock for wind tower/transmission line foundations.
https://scitechdaily.com/wind-farms-cause-more-environmental-impact-than-previously-thought/
- Industrial-scale wind energy is often promoted as a clean and sustainable source of energy. It has, however, many adverse impacts of its own. Of most immediate concern for communities targeted for wind power facilities are their size and noise, with the consequent loss of amenity and, in many cases, health. People concerned with the environment are increasingly aware of the negative impacts of the giant machines and vast land-use required to collect the diffuse and wayward wind — as well the impacts of their additional supporting infrastructure (heavy-duty roads, transformers, power lines) — on wetlands, birds, bats, beneficial insects, and other wildlife — both directly and by degrading, fragmenting, and destroying habitat.
- Steven Nowakowski of Rainforest Reserves Australia collected 2022 5-minute output data for the 180-MW Mount Emerald wind energy facility in Queensland, Australia. The average output was 26.8% of capacity – generating at or above that rate of 48.3 MW only 40% of the time. The median output was 18.1% of capacity (meaning that half the time it was generating less than 32.6 MW.
Wind turbines cause an unsustainable death toll of 30 million birds and 50 million bats a year.
Breitbart
Why Are Bats Important?
- By eating insects, bats save U.S. agriculture billions of dollars per year in pest control. Some studies have estimated that service to be worth over 3.7 billion dollars per year, and possibly as much as 53 billion dollars per year. This value does not, however, take into account the volume of insects eaten by bats in forest ecosystems and the degree to which that benefits industries like lumber. (A single bat can consume more than 1000 insects per hour). It also doesn’t take into account the critical importance of bats as plant and crop pollinators. (Over 530 species of flowering plants rely on bats as their major or exclusive pollinators). So the actual monetary worth of bats is far greater than 3.7 billion dollars per year.